Emotional Processes in VR Exposure Treatment for Flight Phobia

Idan Moshe Aderka

Status: Completed

Conditions: Fear of Flying

Treatments: Behavioral: VRET - Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04213859

6557-19-SMC

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will assess emotional processes and their relation to treatment outcomes during Virtual reality exposure therapy for Flight Phobia. The researchers hypothesize treatment outcomes will be associated with positive changes in emotional constructs

Full description

Emotional constructs and emotion regulation capacities play a central role in the severity of anxiety disorders and are directly related to treatment outcomes in different anxiety disorders. In this study we will examine the relation between positive and negative affect, emotion regulation, emotional instability, emotional differentiation, experiential avoidance and therapy outcomes in participants undergoing Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Flight Phobia. We assume that treatment outcomes will be positively related to changes in the regulation, management and experience of emotions.

Enrollment: 84 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• diagnosis of Flight phobia based on a structured interview
• possession of a smartphone with an active data plan

Exclusion criteria

• cardiovascular disease
• neurological disorders and history of epilepsy
• psychosis
• major depression
• suicidal behavior
• substance abuse.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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84 participants in 2 patient groups

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET)

Experimental group

Description:

1. st stage: Participants will receive information about the study, complete measures of fear of flying and emotional variables, and undergo a diagnostic interview for flight phobia and additional disorders. 2. nd stage: During the week prior to treatment, participants will complete a brief measure of emotion-related variables every evening at a fixed time (08:00 pm). 3. rd stage: Participants will receive therapy for fear of flying using a Virtual Reality (VR) simulator. Therapy sessions will be held once a week during 4 weeks. Participants will complete a brief measure of emotion-related variables at a random time during the 12 hours before the therapy session at a random time during the 12 hours after the therapy session. This will occur for every therapy session. 4. th stage: After treatment, participants will complete measures of fear of flying and emotional variables.

Treatment:

Behavioral: VRET - Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

control

No Intervention group

Description:

1. st stage: Participants will receive information about the study, complete measures of fear of flying and emotional variables, and undergo a diagnostic interview for flight phobia and additional disorders. 2. nd stage: During five weeks no therapy will be administered. Participants will fill questionnaires as follows: During the first week, participants will complete emotional measures every evening at a fixed time (08:00 pm) 3. rd stage: During each of the following 4 weeks, participants will complete two emotional measures during a 24 hour period. 4. th stage: Participants will complete measures of fear of flying and emotional variables.