A Preliminary Study on the Intervention Effect of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy on Fear of Flying

Shanghai Mental Health Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy; Fear of Flying

Treatments: Behavioral: VRE intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06085768

SMHC-VR-002

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to explore the efficacy of VR exposure intervention in alleviating fear of flying through a randomized controlled study.

Enrollment: 64 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• The flight anxiety situations questionnaire (FAS) score is no less than 56 points (the critical value is set as two or more standard deviations higher than the average of the normal population);
• Aged between 18 and 65 years old;
• Have normal intelligence and good or corrected vision;
• No family history of any mental illness or other mental disorders other than anxiety disorder;
• Currently not receiving any treatment for phobia, including but not limited to taking psychotropic drugs (unless the dose is stable for more than 3 months, and the subject agrees to continue taking the dose throughout the study);
• Have at least 1 flight experience;

Exclusion criteria

• The participant cannot tolerate or adapt to VR stimulation;
• The participant was unable to immerse themselves well in the VR environment;
• Severe physical diseases and physical diseases induced by stimulation, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, etc.;
• Have a history of neurological diseases (such as epilepsy, cerebrovascular accident, etc.) or brain trauma or brain surgery;
• The subject suffers from a physical disease and is not in a stable treatment period (such as hyperthyroidism, visual impairment, etc.), resulting in the inability to fully participate in the experimental process;
• Pregnant women.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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64 participants in 2 patient groups

VRE intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will receive 2 VR exposure interventions, once a week, and each intervention will experience 2 complete flight processes for about 90 minutes each time. A complete flight process includes: (1) waiting for the airport bus at the station, (2) check-in, security check, waiting, and boarding at the airport, (3) taxiing, taking off, cruising, landing, and leaving the aircraft during flight. Among them, the flight process requires the participant to sit on the flight seat, which takes about 24 minutes each time. A scale assessment and skin electrode and heart rate data collection will be conducted before and after each intervention. The participants' skin electrode and heart rate data will also be collected during the intervention. They will be followed up in the 2nd week after the intervention. Follow-up content includes scale evaluation and safety evaluation.

Treatment:

Behavioral: VRE intervention

wait-list control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will receive scale assessments in weeks 1, 2, and 4, and after the waiting period, receive the same VR exposure intervention once a week for 2 weeks as the intervention group.