Gamification in the Treatment of Spider Phobia

Anke Haberkamp

Status: Completed

Conditions: Spider Phobia

Treatments: Behavioral: Therapist-guided one-session online exposure therapy according to (Öst, 1989); Behavioral: 7-day exposure therapy via self-developed app according to (Haberkamp et al., submitted)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04423783

GaSpPh

Details and patient eligibility

About

Mobile applications are more and more considered when implementing programs for treating mental disorders. The study aims to reduce avoidance and fear of spiders in spider-fearful individuals by combining exposure principles with gamification elements (e.g. narrative background, level progression, points, feedback). We investigate the efficacy of the gamified app in a remote online-therapy context.

Enrollment: 90 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Participants must

• be 18 years or older,
• SPQ score ≥ 14
• BDI-II score ≤ 18

Exclusion criteria

Participants will be deemed ineligible if they do not meet the above inclusion criteria or

• are allergic to spiders or bee stings,
• are currently undergoing psychotherapeutic and/or psychopharmacological treatments,
• are experiencing current psychosis, mania, or substance abuse, or
• successfully complete 8 or more of 12 possible BAT steps at baseline (to ensure that participants are indeed spider fearful)
• are at higher risk from Covid-19 or
• participated in a pilot study in 2019.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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90 participants in 3 patient groups

Spider gamification app

Experimental group

Description:

Participants play the spider gamification app twice a day for 7 days

Treatment:

Behavioral: 7-day exposure therapy via self-developed app according to (Haberkamp et al., submitted)

Online exposure + spider gamification app

Experimental group

Description:

Participants receive a therapist-guided one-session online exposure therapy and play the spider gamification app twice a day for 7 days

Treatment:

Behavioral: Therapist-guided one-session online exposure therapy according to (Öst, 1989)

Behavioral: 7-day exposure therapy via self-developed app according to (Haberkamp et al., submitted)

Online exposure + non-spider gamification app

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants receive a therapist-guided one-session online exposure therapy and play a non-spider gamification app twice a day for 7 days

Treatment:

Behavioral: Therapist-guided one-session online exposure therapy according to (Öst, 1989)