Treatment of Agoraphobia is following:

• Agoraphobia can be successfully treated through exposure therapy combined with cognitive therapy. Exposure therapy is based on undoing the association that the patient originally formed between the panic symptoms and the feared situation. Exposure treatment can provide lasting relief to the majority of patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia.
• Agoraphobia can be effectively treated with cognitive behavioral therapy. Over 90% of people who stick with this therapy are helped. The most widely used method of behavior therapy is systematic desensitization. In this treatment, people with agoraphobia gradually face their fears until they become more and more comfortable.
• Some anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications can be helpful in treating agoraphobia. Medications that have been used with patients diagnosed with agoraphobia include the benzodiazepine tranquilizers, the MAO inhibitors (MAOIs), tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), and the selective serotonin uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
• Alternative treatments of agoraphobia include hypnotherapy, acupuncture, guided imagery meditation, music therapy, yoga, and ayurvedic medicine.

Prevention

Early treatment for panic attacks can help prevent agoraphobia. Agoraphobia often develops as a response to panic attacks. Instead of avoiding places where you have had a panic attack, it is better to seek medical care. Recent recognition of the link between anxiety and mood disorders in parents and vulnerability to phobic disorders in their children may help to identify children at risk and to develop appropriate preventive strategies for them.

Causes of Agoraphobia are following:

• Agoraphobia develops in response to repeated exposure to anxiety-provoking events.
• Sometime agoraphobia develops in response to a frightening or traumatic event.
• Recent research has confirmed that there is a genetic component to agoraphobia.
• Chronic use of tranquilizers and sleeping pills can lead to causing agoraphobia.
• In many cases, agoraphobia develops after a person has experienced a panic attack (panic disorder). This involves feelings of intense, overwhelming terror along with physical symptoms such as sweating, dizziness, a pounding heart, and shortness of breath.
• Another factor in the development of agoraphobia is the history of respiratory disease.
• Chemical imbalances or medical conditions may also contribute to the development of agoraphobia.

Persons with agoraphobia may also develop fatigue, tension, alcohol or drug abuse problems, and obsessive disorders, making seeking treatment crucial.

Symptoms of agoraphobia can range from mild feelings of discomfort or anxiety in large, crowded spaces, to intense fear and panic attacks People with agoraphobia may feel anxious about such things as loss of bladder or bowel control or choking on food in the presence of others. People with the disorder often become so disabled that they literally feel they cannot leave their homes.

Agoraphobia is diagnosed by taking a careful personal history from the client/patient. There are no laboratory tests required to confirm a diagnosis of agoraphobia nor are there any physical conditions that must be met. Researchers estimate it occurs in less than 1 percent to almost 7 percent of the population and that it is specifically thought to be grossly under diagnosed.