Impact VR: An Emotion Recognition and Regulation Training Program for Youth With CD

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)

Status and phase: Enrolling; Phase 1

Conditions: Callous-Unemotional Traits; Conduct Disorder; Conduct Disorders in Children; Conduct Disorders in Adolescence

Treatments: Other: Comparative Control; Behavioral: Virtual Reality

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06301516

R41MH133540 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

HM20027823

Details and patient eligibility

About

Conduct disorder (CD) is one of the most prevalent childhood psychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, there are limited treatments available for CD. The present study aims to test an innovative virtual reality intervention called Impact VR for symptom reduction in a sample of 60 youth with CD.

Full description

Within the CD diagnosis, a subset of youth (12-46%) display callous-unemotional (CU) traits (termed "limited prosocial emotions"). CU traits denote additional symptoms including a lack of remorse/guilt, a callous lack of empathy, shallow affect, and/or lack of concern about performance. Although both CD and CU traits are inextricably linked to poor outcomes for youth, there remains a scarcity of targeted interventions for CD and CU traits. One of the most significant challenges for treatment is that youth with CD are often perceived by providers as treatment-resistant and treatment disrupters. This leads to poor treatment retention and further isolation from treatment opportunities. Further, existing interventions that target antisocial behaviors more generally are costly because they require 24/7 behavioral management therapies. Impact VR is a psychoeducational intervention for improving emotion recognition and regulation, using immersive gameplay and storylines that are relevant to youth. Impact VR uses evidence-based cognitive and dialectical behavioral approaches to improve emotion regulation. At the center of Impact VR is an individualized training program that teaches youth to effectively identify emotional expressions in others.

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10 to 17 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 10-17 years old
• Identified through the TriNetX database as having a conduct disorder diagnosis
• English speaking

Exclusion criteria

• Youth aged <10 years and >18 years old
• Non-English speaking
• Youth of caregivers younger than 18 years old.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental: Impact VR

Experimental group

Description:

Participants enrolled into Impact VR will be complete the first of four sessions. The four 20-minute sessions will be completed over 4 weeks (one session per week) either in the lab, at the participant's home, school or a mutual private meeting place

Treatment:

Behavioral: Virtual Reality

Comparative Control

Other group

Description:

Participants enrolled into the comparative control group will complete a one-time PowerPoint presentation that provides an overview of emotion expressions and instructions on how to recognize emotions in others

Treatment:

Other: Comparative Control