BLOOD INJURY PHOBIA: AN OVERVIEW OF GENDER SPECIFIC BRAIN DIFFERENCES

Abstract

Blood injury injection phobia (BII) involves an intense fear of situations, in which an individual is directly or indirectly exposed to blood, injections or viewing injuries, along with a tendency to avoid these situations. BII phobia is highly prevalent in females as compared to males. It is virtually the only specific phobia and the only anxiety disorder, in which fainting occurs. Although fainting is much distressed to the BII phobic individuals, but it may have developed in the humans at the time when they needed it much as a survival mechanism. In this article we discuss how in the humans there may have developed the trait of BII phobia in the ancestors, including the variation in the symptoms among sexes. There are not studies which specifically examine the syncope related brain differences among genders. But there are other well defined studies which highlight marked differences among male and female brains. Considering this we also review some recent breakthrough discoveries showing differences in the brain of males and females at gene expression level which leads to the variation in brain and behaviour related problems among genders. There is an exigent need to understand the brain behavioral problems through multiple perspectives.