Virtual Reality Therapy for Treatment-resistant Auditory Hallucinations in Schizophrenia

Ciusss de L'Est de l'Île de Montréal

Status: Completed

Conditions: Auditory Hallucination, Verbal; Treatment-resistant Schizophrenia

Treatments: Other: Treatment-as-usual; Behavioral: Avatar therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03148639

IPPM 14-006

Details and patient eligibility

About

Treatment of verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia is clinically challenging for both the patient and the therapist. For the therapist, one of the main difficulties arises from the impossibility of directly communicating with the entity persecuting the patient. For the patient, the therapeutic process is challenging because it aims at getting to better cope with an entity that keeps repeating stereotyped and abusive sentences without having the emotional strength to reply to the persecutor. To help overcome these clinical challenges, virtual reality enable patients to recreate the face and the voice of their persecutor.The hypothesis is that the engagement of patients in a dialogue with an external representation of their persecutor, with the support of the therapist, would help them to gain better control over their voices.

Enrollment: 19 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• distressing auditory verbal hallucinations
• medication resistance relating to auditory verbal hallucinations (no response after 3 antipsychotics trials lasting at least 4 weeks each with a minimum of 400mg chlorpromazine equivalent)
• DSM-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder

Exclusion criteria

• any change in medication within the past 2 months;
• substance use disorder within the last 12 months
• neurological disorder or unstable and serious physical illness
• ongoing psychotic episode
• cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis within the last 12 months

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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19 participants in 2 patient groups

Avatar therapy

Experimental group

Description:

Immediate Avatar therapy.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Avatar therapy

Treatment-as-usual

Other group

Description:

Treatment-as-usual then delayed Avatar therapy.

Treatment:

Other: Treatment-as-usual

Behavioral: Avatar therapy