Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Public Speaking Anxiety (VRETA)

January 22, 2020 updated by: Per Carlbring, Stockholm University

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Public Speaking Anxiety: A Multiple-baseline Effectiveness Trial

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.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
23

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Sweden
      • Stockholm, Sweden, 10691
        • Department of Psychology

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

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

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: NA
  • Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
EXPERIMENTAL: OST-VRET + in-vivo transition program
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.
Behavioral: In-session Virtual Reality exposure therapy
A series of exposure exercises (speech exercises) in front of a virtual audience, focusing on promoting inhibitory learning, with audio-feedback.
Other Names:
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Exposure therapy
  • Virtual reality therapy
Behavioral: Internet-administered transition program
Four-module internet program with weekly therapist guidance, focusing on transitioning to in-vivo exposure in everyday settings.
Other Names:
  • Internet intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from baseline: Public Speaking Anxiety Scale
Time Frame: Change from baseline: (1) five days after interview, (2) ten days after interview, (3) 7 days post-OST, (4) 14 days post-OST (5) 21 days post-OST (6) 28 days post-OST, (7) 35 days post-OST, (8) 125 days post-PST
Canonical total score will be used. Measure is self-rated, online. Swedish translation of the original PSAS (Bartholomay & Houlihan, 2016)
Change from baseline: (1) five days after interview, (2) ten days after interview, (3) 7 days post-OST, (4) 14 days post-OST (5) 21 days post-OST (6) 28 days post-OST, (7) 35 days post-OST, (8) 125 days post-PST

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from baseline: Brunnsviken Brief Quality of life scale
Time Frame: Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (4) 35 days post-OST, (5) 125 days post-PST
Canonical total score will be used. Measure is self-rated, online.
Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (4) 35 days post-OST, (5) 125 days post-PST
Change from baseline: Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self-Report
Time Frame: Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Canonical total score will be used. Measure is self-rated, online.
Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Change from baseline: Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale
Time Frame: Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Canonical total score will be used. Measure is self-rated, online.
Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Change from baseline: Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item
Time Frame: Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Canonical total score will be used. Measure is self-rated, online.
Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Change from baseline: Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item
Time Frame: Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST
Canonical total score will be used. Measure is self-rated, online.
Change from baseline: (1) 7 days post-OST, (2) 35 days post-OST, (3) 125 days post-PST

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Stockholm University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
PBM
Mimerse

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
January 14, 2019

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
September 30, 2019

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
September 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
March 11, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 19, 2019

First Posted (ACTUAL)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
March 21, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
January 23, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 22, 2020

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • VRETA

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

Anonymous outcome measure IPD will be made available upon request from academic researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings