Publications
The below is a selected list of publications.
For a complete and updated list of book chapters, journal publications, and more, click here.
Books
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G., & Iverach, L. (Eds.) (2018). Curing the Dread of Death: Theory, Research and Practice. Brisbane: Australian Academic Press.
Menzies, R.G., & Menzies, R.E. (2019). Tales from the Valley of Death: Reflects from Psychotherapy on the Fear of Death. Brisbane: Australian Academic Press.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2021). Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society. Allen & Unwin.
Menzies, R.E., & Veale, D. (2022). Free Yourself from Death Anxiety: A CBT Self-Help Guide for a Fear of Death and Dying. Jessica Kingsley Publishing.
Menzies, R.G., Menzies, R.E., & Dingle, G. (2022). Existential concerns and cognitive-behavioral procedures – An integrative approach to mental health. New York: Springer.
Media Articles
Fear of Death Underlies Most of Our Phobias
May, 2016. The Conversation
Death Anxiety: The Worm at the Core of Mental Health
December, 2018. InPsych magazine
Body bags and corpse meditations: Is this how you cure your dread of death?
September, 2019. The Sydney Morning Herald
Death anxiety: Body bags, catastrophic thinking, and facing the inevitable.
July, 2020. The Guardian
‘It’s a normal part of life’: Tackling death anxiety with apps, body bags and video games
August, 2020. Triple J: Hack
Why do some people delay getting vaccinated or pretend COVID doesn’t exist? Paradoxically, denial of death.
October, 2021. The Conversation.
How you can subdue your fear of death and live a fuller life.
February, 2022. Men’s Health.
Barbie has death anxiety. Here’s what it means.
July, 2023. Yahoo! Life US.
Thanatophobia (fear of death): Symptoms and treatment.
July, 2023. Forbes Health.
How to get more comfortable with death.
August, 2023. Psyche.
Why do we fear death and how can we overcome it?
November, 2023. The Good Death Society.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications
Iverach, L., Menzies, R.G., & Menzies, R.E. (2014). Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 580-593.
Menzies, R.G., Menzies, R.E., & Iverach, L. (2015). The role of death fears in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Australian Clinical Psychologist, 1, 6-11.
Menzies, R.E., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2017). Death anxiety and its relationship with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126, 367-377.
Menzies, R.E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2018). The effects of psychosocial interventions on death anxiety: A meta-analysis and systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 59, 64-73.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2019). The relationship between death anxiety and severity of mental illnesses. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 452-467.
Zuccala, M., Menzies, R.E., Hunt, C., & Abbott, M. (2019). A systematic review of the psychometric properties of death anxiety self-report measures. Death Studies, 6, 1-23.
Moreton, S., Szalla, L., Menzies, R.E., & Arena, A. (2019). Embedding existential psychology within psychedelic science: Reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics. Psychopharmacology, 237(1), 21-32.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2020). Death anxiety in the time of COVID-19: Theoretical explanations and clinical implications. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13, e19.
Menzies, R.E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2020). Subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder and their relationship to death anxiety. Journal of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders, 27, 100572.
Menzies, R.E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2020). Pathways to obsessive-compulsive disorder and the role of death anxiety. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 75(3), 170-175.
Menzies, R.E., Neimeyer, R.A., & Menzies, R.G. (2020). Death anxiety, loss and grief in the time of COVID-19. Behaviour Change, 37(3), 111-115.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2021). The effect of mortality salience on bodily scanning behaviours in anxiety-related disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2(999).
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., Helgadóttir, F.D., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2021). Overcome Death Anxiety: The development of an online CBT program for fears of death. Behaviour Change, 38(4), 235-249.
Verin, R.E., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2021). Death anxiety, OCD and attachment: What’s love got to do with it? Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 50(2), 131-141.
Pradhan, P., Sharpe, L., & Menzies, R.E. (2021). Towards a stepped care model for managing fear of cancer recurrence or progression in cancer survivors. Cancer Management and Research, 13, 8953-8965.
Arena, A., MacCann, C., Menzies, R.E., Moreton, S., & Tiliopoulos, N. (2022). Living authentically in the face of death: Predictors of autonomous motivation among individuals exposed to chronic mortality cues compared to a matched community sample. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying.
Sharpe, L., Todd, J., Scott, A., Gatzounis, I., Menzies, R.E., & Meulders, A. (2022). Safety behaviours or safety precautions? The role of subtle avoidance in anxiety disorders in the context of chronic physical illness. Clinical Psychology Review, 92, 102126.
Menzies, R.E., & Whittle, L.F. (2022). Stoicism and death acceptance: Integrating Stoic philosophy in cognitive behaviour therapy for death anxiety. Discover Psychology.
Chawla, S., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2022). Existential concerns in OCD with aggressive and sexual obsessions. The Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 32, 100710.
Sharpe, L., Michalowski, M., Richmond, B., Menzies, R.E., & Shaw, J. (2022). Fear of progression in chronic illnesses other than cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of a transdiagnostic construct. Health Psychology Review, 18, 1-20.
Dudeney, J., Sharpe, L., McGuire, B., Menzies, R.E., & McDonald, S. (2022). Are psychological interventions efficacious for adults with migraine? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Headache, 00, 1-15.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., Dudeney, J., Todd, J., Szabo, M., Sesel, A., & Dear, B.F. (2022). A randomized controlled trial of cognitive behaviour therapy versus mindfulness for people with rheumatoid arthritis with and without a history of recurrent depression: Study protocol and design. BMJ Open.
Sigurdardottir, S., Helgadottir, F.D., Menzies, R.E., Blondahl, M., & Menzies, R.G. (2022). Improving adherence to a web-based cognitive behavioural therapy program for social anxiety with group sessions: A randomised controlled trial. Internet Interventions, 28, 100535.
Moreton, S., Burden-Hill, A., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Reduced death anxiety and obsessive beliefs as mediators of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics on OCD symptomology. Clinical Psychologist.
Morandini, J., Menzies R.E., Strudwick, J., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2022). Do bisexual and pansexual women differ? Yes, when it comes to minority stress. Psychology & Sexuality.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2022). The development and validation of the death anxiety beliefs and behaviours scale (DABBS). British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Morandini, J., Menzies, R.E., Moreton, S., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2022). Do beliefs about sexual orientation predict sexual identity among sexual minorities? Archives of Sexual Behaviour.
Richmond, B., Sharpe, L., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Are fear campaigns for increasing adherence to COVID-relation mitigation measures? International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2022). Death anxiety and mental health: Requiem for a dreamer. Invited paper for Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 78, 10187.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., & Cunningham, M. (2022). “Life’s too short to be small”: An experimental exploration of the relationship between death anxiety and muscle dysmorphia symptoms. Body Image, 44, 43-52.
Moreton, S.G., Arena, A., Foy, Y.P.M., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the relationship between acute subjective effects of psychedelics and improved subjective well-being. Death Studies.
Menzies, R.E., Julien, A., Sharpe, L., Menzies, R.G., Helgadottir, F.D., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2023). Overcoming death anxiety: A phase I trial of an online CBT program in a clinical sample. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. https://doi.org/10.1017/S135246582300005X
Liu, C., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2023). A systematic review of existential concerns in borderline personality disorder. The Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Sims, M.A., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2023). A systematic review of the relationship between death anxiety, capability for suicide, and suicidality. Death Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2023.2179686
Moreton, S., Burden-Hill, A., & Menzies, R.E. (2023). Reduced death anxiety and obsessive beliefs as mediators of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics on OCD symptomology. Clinical Psychologist, 27(1), 58-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/13284207.2022.2086793
Menzies, R.E. (2023). The undiscovered country: Welcoming a new era of existentially-informed clinical psychology. Invited editorial in Clinical Psychologist. 27(1), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/13284207.2023.2184249
Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., Menzies, R.E., Forrest, D., Crombez, G., Colagiuri, B. (2023). A synthesis of meta-analyses of mindfulness-based interventions in pain. Pain.
Book Chapters
Menzies, R.E., & Iverach, L. (2016). The dread of death and its relationship to mental health. In R.G. Menzies, M. Kyrios & N. Kazantzis (Ed.), Innovations and Future Directions in the Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies. (pp. 219-223). Brisbane: Australian Academic Press.
Iverach, L., Menzies, R. M., & Menzies, R.E. (2016). Fear of death underlies most of our phobias. In J. Watson (Ed.), The Conversation Yearbook 2016: 50 standout articles from Australia’s top thinkers. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Publishing.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2017). Anxiety Disorders: Gender Differences. In A.E. Wenzel (Ed.), The Sage Encyclopaedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2017). Anxiety Disorders: Incidence and Prevalence. In A.E. Wenzel (Ed.), The Sage Encyclopaedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2017). Anxiety Disorders: Lifespan Perspectives. In A.E. Wenzel (Ed.), The Sage Encyclopaedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Menzies, R.E. (2018). Impermanence and the human dilemma: Observations across the ages. In R.E. Menzies, R.G. Menzies, & L. Iverach (Eds.), Curing the dread of death: Theory, research and practice (pp. 3-21). Australian Academic Press.
Menzies, R.E. (2018). Cognitive and behavioural procedures for the treatment of death anxiety. In R.E. Menzies, R.G. Menzies, & L. Iverach (Eds.), Curing the dread of death: Theory, research and practice (pp. 167-184). Australian Academic Press.
Menzies, R.G., & Menzies, R.E. (2018). The death instinct and psychodynamic accounts of the wound of mortality. In R.E. Menzies, R.G. Menzies, & L. Iverach (Eds.), Curing the dread of death: Theory, research and practice (pp. 83-101).
Menzies, R.G., & Menzies, R.E. (2018). Fear of death: Nature, development and moderating factors. In R.E. Menzies, R.G. Menzies, & L. Iverach (Eds.), Curing the dread of death: Theory, research and practice (pp. 21-40).
Menzies, R.G., & Menzies, R.E. (2020). Emotional pain and suffering: The search for global solutions beyond the clinic. In P. Rhodes (Ed.), Beyond The Psychology Industry. What Kind of Therapy Do We Need Now? Springer Publishing.
Wittkowski, J., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Death-related attitudes and perspectives. In H. Servaty-Seib & H. Chapple (Eds.), Handbook of Thanatology. Association of Death Education and Counseling.
Zuccala, M., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Fears of death and their relationship to mental health. In R.G. Menzies, R.E. Menzies, & G. Dingle (Eds.), Existential Concerns and Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures: An Integrative Approach to Mental Health. Springer Nature Switzerland.
Menzies, R.E., & Veale, D. (2022). Creative approaches to treating the dread of death. In R.G. Menzies, R.E. Menzies, & G. Dingle (Eds.), Existential Concerns and Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures: An Integrative Approach to Mental Health. Springer Nature Switzerland.