Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Public Speaking Anxiety (VRETA)

Stockholm University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Anxiety; Social Anxiety Disorder, Performance Only; Public Speaking

Treatments: Behavioral: Internet-administered transition program; Behavioral: In-session Virtual Reality exposure therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03885414

VRETA

Details and patient eligibility

About

Virtual Reality exposure therapy (VRET) is an efficacious treatment for anxiety disorders but has yet to be implemented in regular care settings. This is arguably due to the limitations of the past generation of VR technology, which was expensive, inaccessible, cumbersome and hard to use. With the advent of consumer VR technology, VRET is now ready for implementation in regular care. This multiple-baseline trial will examine the effectiveness of VRET for public speaking anxiety (PSA) when delivered under real-world conditions at an ordinary, non-specialized mental health clinic, by clinical psychologist with only brief VRET training. Participants will either be self-referred specifically for this treatment, or come through ordinary clinical channels. Self-rated PSA will serve as primary outcome measure and will be measured three times prior to treatment (at screening and twice after a diagnostic screening telephone interview) , four times after onset, at the end of the treatment period, and three months after treatment.

Enrollment: 23 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Have substantial public speaking anxiety (PSAS >= 60)
• Can travel to PBM clinic on one occasion and pay stipulated patient fee
• Can speak and understand sufficient Swedish
• Have stable access to the internet

Exclusion criteria

• Deficits in sight or balance impacting the VR-experience
• A severe psychiatric disorder better treated elsewhere, including current major depression, alcohol or drug abuse, bipolarity, psychosis or similar
• Active psychopharmacological treatment, unless stable for last 3 months
• Other ongoing psychological treatment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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23 participants in 1 patient group

OST-VRET + in-vivo transition program

Experimental group

Description:

One-session treatment (OST) VRET on-location with clinical psychologist (3 hours), followed by a therapist-guided, four-week online program encouraging transition to real-world, in-vivo exposure exercises.

Treatment:

Behavioral: In-session Virtual Reality exposure therapy

Behavioral: Internet-administered transition program