Childhood Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia, Specific Phobia, Animal, Specific Phobia, Natural Environment, Specific Phobia, Situational
Conditions
Keywords
Exposure Therapy, Virtual Reality
Brief summary
Anxiety is a common and impairing problem for children. The principle treatment for pediatric anxiety involves facing a child's fears in a stepwise approach through a therapeutic exercise called exposures. While exposures are effective, some feared situations cannot be confronted in a clinician's office (e.g., heights, public speaking, storms). This poses a logistical challenge in treatment that: (1) takes time away from patient care, (2) leads clinicians to rely on imagined exposures, and/or (3) requires families to complete exposures outside of the therapy visits. This creates a burden for clinicians and families, and impedes treatment success. Immersive virtual reality (VR) presents an innovative solution that allows children to face fears without leaving the clinician's office. While VR has been used to distract children during painful medical procedures, it has not been well examined as a primary treatment for pediatric anxiety. This study proposes to examine the effectiveness and acceptability of using immersive VR exposures to treat children and adolescents with specific phobias.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALVirtual Reality Exposure Therapy
Participants will receive a single session of virtual reality exposure therapy that targets the participant's specific phobia stimuli.
Sponsors
Johns Hopkins University
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Masking description
Outcomes assessor is not involved in treatment, and will assess the severity of the participants anxiety.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 8-17 years (inclusive), * meet diagnostic criteria for one or more phobias on a structured diagnostic interview (ADIS-C/P). This specifically includes natural environments (e.g., storms, heights) and/or situational settings (e.g., airplanes, public speaking). * be fluent in English.
Exclusion criteria
* unable to complete rating scales, or * attend study visits.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical Severity Rating (CSR) of Targeted Specific Phobia on Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule for Children and Parents (ADIS-C/P) | 1 week after virtual reality exposure therapy session | The ADIS-C/P CSR for the Specific Phobia is a single item rating that is made by a clinician. Scores are made on a 9-point scale that ranges from 0 (Not at all) to 8 (Very, very much). A score of 4 or greater considered to be indicative of a psychiatric disorder. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Screen for Childhood Anxiety and Related Disorders-Parent Report (SCARED-P) | 1 week after virtual reality exposure therapy session | Parent-reported rating of child anxiety that consists of 41-items. Items are rated on a 3-point scale that ranges from 0 (Not True) to 2 (Very True). The total score ranges from 0 to 82, with a total score of 25 or greater may indicate the presence of an anxiety disorder. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed