Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Mar 1, 2019
Date Accepted: May 27, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Virtual exposure therapy with a personalized real-time arousal detection and feedback for adults with social anxiety: A pilot proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Exposure therapy, the mainstay of treating social anxiety, can be optimized.
Objective:
This is a first attempt to examine the feasibility of an arousal feedback-based virtual exposure therapy to alleviate social anxiety.
Methods:
A randomized, pilot, proof-of-concept trial was conducted to evaluate the acceptability, safety, and preliminary efficacy of our treatment program. Sessions were administered once a week for 4 weeks to 50 young adults who reported at least symptomatic social anxiety. Participants in both intervention and waitlist-control groups completed assessments for social anxiety symptoms at baseline, week 5, and week 10.
Results:
Most participants found the intervention acceptable (82.0%, 95% CI: 69.0% to 91.0%). Seven (14.9%, 95%CI: 7.0%, 28.0%) participants reported at least 1 mild adverse event over the course of study. No moderate or serious adverse events were reported. Participants in the intervention group demonstrated greater improvements on all outcome measures of social anxiety from baseline to week 5 as compared to the waitlist-control group (effect sizes from 0.13 to 1.39).
Conclusions:
Results indicated that it is worthwhile to proceed onto a larger trial. Our virtual exposure therapy may be feasible for treating social anxiety symptoms. Additional studies are warranted to explore its therapeutic mechanisms and neurobiological underpinnings. Clinical Trial: NCT02493010 ClinicalTrials.gov https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02493010
Citation
