A Specific Phobia of Vomiting (SPOV) or emetophobia commonly develops in childhood with a mean duration of about 10 years before getting treatment. It occurs almost exclusively in women. It is one of the most common specific phobias that present to clinicians. People with a SPOV tend to be more handicapped than people with other specific phobias (for example they may avoid a desired pregnancy or being significantly underweight from restriction of food). Some people with emetophobia also have OCD. There is one RCT of CBT compared to a wait list. Newer developments are focussed on computerised CBT and use of virtual reality.

Professor David Veale  is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Visiting Professor in Cognitive Behavioural Therapies at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust & The Nightingale Hospital. David leads a national outpatient and inpatient service for people with severe treatment refractory OCD and BDD at the Maudsley Hospital, London and the Nightingale Hospital North London. He was a member of the group revising the diagnostic guidelines for ICD11 for Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders for the World Health Organisation.

He was a member of the group that wrote the NICE guidelines on OCD and BDD in 2006 and chaired the NICE Evidence Update on OCD in 2013. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

David is also a trustee of EmetAction,  the world’s first charity dedicated to emetophobia.