- ICH GCP
- US Clinical Trials Registry
- Clinical Trial NCT04975854
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Acrophobia
July 22, 2021 updated by: Iveta Fajnerová, National Institute of Mental Health, Czech Republic
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Versus No Treatment for Acrophobia: A Randomized Controlled Trial
The aim of this study is to examine the efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) as a treatment for specific phobia (acrophobia).
The study will randomly assign 42 participants with acrophobia to one of two conditions: a) the experimental condition (consisting of 3 sessions of virtual reality exposure) or b) a control condition.
Both groups will receive short information session about general principles of exposure therapy before the start of the study.
After the end of the study, the waitlist group will be invited to attend the short version (one or two-sessions) of the VRET.
Both groups will receive a final follow-up questionnaires 2 months after the last session.
Study Overview
Status
Recruiting
Intervention / Treatment
Study Type
Interventional
Enrollment (Anticipated)
50
Phase
- 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 Contact
- Name: Iveta Fajnerova
- Phone Number: 00420608501034
- Email: iveta.fajnerova@nudz.cz
Study Contact Backup
- Name: Anna Francova
- Email: anna.francova@nudz.cz
Study Locations
-
-
-
Klecany, Czechia
- Recruiting
- National Institute of Mental Health
-
Contact:
- Iveta Fajnerova
-
-
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
Ages Eligible for Study
18 years to 64 years (ADULT)
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No
Genders Eligible for Study
All
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- individual meeting ICD-10 criteria for diagnosis of specific phobia
- fluent in Czech
Exclusion Criteria:
- currently receiving psychological treatment for acrophobia
- psychotropic medication (unless on stable dosage for the previous 1 month and stabilized for the duration of the study)
- another severe mental disorder, such as bipolar disorder or psychotic disorder
- contradictions to using a virtual reality (e.g., epilepsy, balance problems)
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: RANDOMIZED
- Interventional Model: PARALLEL
- Masking: SINGLE
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
---|---|
EXPERIMENTAL: Virtual Reality Exposure
Participants complete three 30-40-minute sessions of exposure administered via a virtual reality headset.
The exposure involve exposure to various heights and height cues in the virtual city environment.
Experimental group also attends 20-minute online information session (prerecorded video).
|
Virtual reality scenarios consists of increasingly intense exposures to phobic stimuli (e.g., looking over railings from various floor levels) with the support of the therapist.
The goal of VRET is sufficient reduction in anxiety to allow the patients to expose themselves to heights in everyday situations.
This includes 20-minute information session about general principles of exposure therapy before the start of the study.
|
OTHER: Control
Control group attends a single 20-minute information session (prerecorded video) about general principles of exposure therapy and anxiety before the start of the study, but receives no exposure-based intervention.
|
This includes 20-minute information session about general principles of exposure therapy before the start of the study.
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Visual Height Intolerance Severity Scale (vHISS)
Time Frame: Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
The vHISS is a 8-item scale assessing the severity of visual height intolerance with additional questions for diagnosing acrophobia.
Raw score range from 0 to 13, where 0 = least severely affected and 13 = most severely affected.
|
Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
Visual Height Intolerance Severity Scale (vHISS)
Time Frame: 2-months Post-Treatment (Controlling for Immediate Post-Treatment Score)
|
The vHISS is a 8-item scale assessing the severity of visual height intolerance with additional questions for acrophobia.Raw score range from 0 to 13, where 0 = least severely affected and 13 = most severely affected.
|
2-months Post-Treatment (Controlling for Immediate Post-Treatment Score)
|
Severity Measure for Specific Phobia-Adult (SMSP-A)
Time Frame: Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
SMSP-A is a 10-item scale that assesses the severity of specific phobias in individuals aged 18 and older over the past 7 days.
Items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale with item scores of 1-4 respectively indicating mild, moderate, severe and extreme severity of specific phobia related distress.
|
Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
Severity Measure for Specific Phobia-Adult (SMSP-A)
Time Frame: 2-months Post-Treatment (Controlling for Immediate Post-Treatment Score)
|
SMSP-A is a 10-item scale that assesses the severity of specific phobias in individuals aged 18 and older over the past 7 days.
Items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale with item scores of 1-4 respectively indicating mild, moderate, severe and extreme severity of specific phobia related distress.
|
2-months Post-Treatment (Controlling for Immediate Post-Treatment Score)
|
The IAPT phobia scale-avoidance
Time Frame: 2-Weeks In-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
The IAPT phobia scale-avoidance is a single item from the outcome measures administered by the UK National Health Service's IAPT programme (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies).
The patient is asked to rate his/her avoidance of heights in daily situations on a scale from 0 (would not avoid it) to 8 (always avoid it).
|
2-Weeks In-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
The IAPT phobia scale-avoidance
Time Frame: Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
The IAPT phobia scale-avoidance is a single item from the outcome measures administered by the UK National Health Service's IAPT programme (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies).
The patient is asked to rate his/her avoidance of heights in daily situations on a scale from 0 (would not avoid it) to 8 (always avoid it).
|
Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
The IAPT phobia scale-avoidance
Time Frame: 2-months Post-Treatment (Controlling for Immediate Post-Treatment Score)
|
The IAPT phobia scale-avoidance is a single item from the outcome measures administered by the UK National Health Service's IAPT programme (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies).
The patient is asked to rate his/her avoidance of heights in daily situations on a scale from 0 (would not avoid it) to 8 (always avoid it).
|
2-months Post-Treatment (Controlling for Immediate Post-Treatment Score)
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Six-item State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-6)
Time Frame: Immediately Post-Sessions
|
The 6-item short form of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is used to measure self-reported symptoms of state anxiety with higher score indicating higher anxiety levels (prorated score range 20-80).
|
Immediately Post-Sessions
|
Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS)
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 months. During In-Sessions: week 1-3 (reported repeatedly during each session in response to presented exposure situations).
|
The SUDS is a visual analog scale in which the participant rates his/her anxiety/discomfort based on a range between 0 (no anxiety/discomfort) and 10 (very severe anxiety/discomfort).
A SUDS rating will be collected at the end of each segment, reflecting maximum distress experienced during the interaction.
|
Through study completion, an average of 1 months. During In-Sessions: week 1-3 (reported repeatedly during each session in response to presented exposure situations).
|
Anxiety Hierarchy
Time Frame: Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
The patient is asked to develope a hierarchy of feared situations ranging from most-feared at the top to least-feared at the bottom.
Then, he/she rates anticipated fear, anxiety or distress for each item (score 0-100 %, with higher score indicating higher anxiety) - according to how distressing they feel it would be to encounter that situation.
The hierarchy is used to guide a process of VRET sessions.
|
Immediately Post-Treatment (Controlling for Baseline Score)
|
Other Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
The Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ)
Time Frame: Immediately Post-First Session
|
The scale includes 3 subscales SP (spatial presence), INV (involvement) and REAL (experienced realism) with score range 0-7.
Higher scores indication higher sense of presence.
This measure might be positivelly associated with positive outcome.
|
Immediately Post-First Session
|
Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ)
Time Frame: Immediately Post-First Session
|
The scale evaluates cybersickness symptoms in three subscales: nausea (N), oculomotor disturbance (O), disorientation (D).
Total simulator sickness raw score 0-48 (adjusted total score 0-180).
Higher scores on each scale indicatestronger perceptions of the underlying sickness symptoms and aretherefore undesired.
This measure might be negatively associated with positive outcome and sense of presence.
|
Immediately Post-First Session
|
Collaborators and Investigators
This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.
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 (ANTICIPATED)
July 13, 2021
Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED)
June 1, 2022
Study Completion (ANTICIPATED)
June 1, 2022
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
July 12, 2021
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
July 22, 2021
First Posted (ACTUAL)
July 26, 2021
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)
July 26, 2021
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
July 22, 2021
Last Verified
July 1, 2021
More Information
Terms related to this study
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- TL03000223-01
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
YES
IPD Plan Description
IPD (primary outcome measures) that underlie results in a publication.
IPD Sharing Time Frame
IPD will be shared starting 6 month after the publication.
IPD Sharing Access Criteria
Data access requests will be reviewed using an online form.
Requestors will be required to sign a data access agreement.
IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type
- STUDY_PROTOCOL
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.
Clinical Trials on Anxiety Disorders
-
Prisma Health-UpstateCompletedAnxiety | Anxiety, Separation | Separation Anxiety | Anxiety Generalized
-
Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of ChicagoUniversity of California, Los Angeles; University of CincinnatiRecruitingAnxiety, Separation | Anxiety, Social | Anxiety, GeneralizedUnited States
-
AstraZenecaCompletedAnxiety Disorders | Anxiety | Anxiety Neuroses | Anxiety StatesUnited States
-
Nazife Begüm KARANCompletedDental Anxiety | Sedative; Anxiety DisorderTurkey
-
Loyola UniversityCompletedAnxiety | Anxiety State | Procedural AnxietyUnited States
-
Eli Lilly and CompanyCompletedAnxiety Neuroses | Anxiety States, Neurotic | Neuroses, AnxietyUnited States, Mexico, South Africa
-
West University of TimisoaraUnknownAnxiety Disorder/Anxiety StateRomania
-
Dr. Nazanin AlaviActive, not recruitingGeneralized Anxiety Disorder | AnxietyCanada
-
ProofPilotFisher WallaceActive, not recruitingGeneralized Anxiety Disorder | Anxiety | Generalized AnxietyUnited States
-
Loma Linda UniversityCompletedParental/Caregiver Anxiety | Child's AnxietyUnited States
Clinical Trials on Exposure Therapy (Virtual Reality)
-
VU University of AmsterdamCompletedSocial Anxiety Disorder | Social PhobiaNetherlands
-
Tomorrow Sp. z o.o.National Center for Research and Development, PolandCompleted
-
Georgia State UniversityVirtually Better, Inc.CompletedSocial Anxiety DisorderUnited States
-
Weill Medical College of Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityRecruitingPosttraumatic Stress DisorderUnited States
-
Stockholm UniversityCompletedAnxiety | Social Phobia | Behavior TherapySweden
-
Luxembourg Institute of HealthCentre Hospitalier du LuxembourgCompleted
-
Johns Hopkins UniversityCompletedSpecific Phobia | Specific Phobia, Animal | Specific Phobia, Situational | Specific Phobia, Natural Environment | Childhood Anxiety DisorderUnited States
-
University of Notre DameCompletedSpecific Phobia | Anxiety Disorder | Fear of Heights | AcrophobiaUnited States
-
Idan Moshe AderkaCompleted