Forensic psychiatric inpatients with aggression regulation problems Mental and Behavioural Disorders Forensic psychiatric inpatients with aggression regulation problems
Conditions
Interventions
The Virtual Reality Aggression Prevention Training (VRAPT) consists of 16 individual treatment sessions, delivered by specially trained VRAPT therapists using the VRAPT treatment manual and workbooks
Sponsors
Regional Forensic Psychiatric Clinic
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Sentenced to forensic psychiatric care and are being treated as inpatients at a maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital in Sweden 2. History of aggression and/or current problems with reactive aggression
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Inability to understand the meaning of participating in the study, and insufficient psychiatric status to provide informed consent 2. Insufficient skills in the Swedish language that impede active participation in all parts of the study 3. Epilepsy 4. Intellectual disabilities (IQ <70) 5. Autism spectrum disorder with severely impaired functioning 6. Acute psychotic state 7. Current and serious security risks that prevent safe participation
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Occurrence and severity of aggressive behaviours demonstrated by forensic psychiatric patients, assessed through staff reports using The Social Dysfunction and Aggression Scale-9, self-reports (Aggression Questionnaire-Revised Swedish Version; State-Trait Anger eXpression Inventory-2), and collected from medical files. Staff reports and information from medical files will be collected continuously from baseline (12 weeks prior to treatment start), through the treatment, and 12 weeks after completed treatment. Self-reports will be conducted directly before treatment start, directly after completed treatment, and 12 weeks after completed treatment. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Self-reported emotion regulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) will be collected from patients directly before treatment start, directly after completed treatment, and 12 weeks after completed treatment 2. Treatment fidelity will be assessed through the therapist's workbook, where the therapist assesses fidelity for each session directly after the session, which will be collected continuously during treatment in the VRAPT treatment protocol 3. Importance of confounders will be investigated through collecting information on psychosocial background including childhood adversities (self-report with Childhood Trauma Questionnaire- Short Form; medical files), mental health characteristics and history (medical files), and history of externalizing behaviours and callous aggression (Externalizing Spectrum Inventory-Brief Form; medical files) which will be collected directly before the treatment start 4. Sense of presence in the virtual environment will be assessed through self-report (I-group Presence Questionnaire) directly after completed treatment 5. Experiences from the VRAPT treatment will be assessed through interviews with therapists and participating patients conducted after completed participation | — |
Countries
Sweden
Outcome results
None listed