Autism Spectrum Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder
Conditions
Keywords
Virtual reality, psychotherapy
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to compare CBT VR exposure + VR social skills treatment to CBT Imaginal exposure + mindfulness, in reducing the severity of social anxiety in adults with autism and social anxiety (SA), to identify characteristics associated with benefitting from the CBT-VR treatment and to assess acceptability and feasibility of the VR intervention for patients receiving it and use findings to improve methods and to prepare for a community based pragmatic trial.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCBT
Participants will receive will receive 12 weeks of weekly CBT for Social Anxiety, including an intervention to improve conversational skills. The CBT for Social Anxiety will include imaginal exposure, which is a way of using the imagination to work with situations that produce anxiety. Participants will also receive a mindfulness intervention.
DEVICEVR
The VR software, the Virtual Communicator (VC) consists of a highly realistic avatar that interacts with the client in one of several situations. The therapist controls its gestures, facial expressions, body movements, and speech and builds and saves modular combinations of gestures and facial expressions that can be assembled in any order to create a conversational interaction. The software has two adult avatars of ambiguous race/ethnicity, male and female. The VC is delivered without a headset interactively over the internet, on a secure, password-protected connection that increase access by not requiring headsets and not requiring the client to come to the office. The VC can be done in English, or in Spanish where appropriate. Treatment will be done for 12 sessions. The VR software is used to provide CBT exposures to reduce anxiety and also to practice social interactions.
Sponsors
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (diagnosed by a qualified professional) * verbal and literate in English or Spanish * average or greater intellectual ability, based on history and interview * able to operate a computer (Windows or Mac).
Exclusion criteria
* current or historical severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe depression * intellectual disability or a learning disability that would interfere with participating (e.g., unable to read) * unable use the technology or do not have access to the technology * unable to read
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in anxiety as assessed by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) | Baseline, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks, post treatment (about 4 weeks after end of treatment)) | This is a 24 item questionnaire, each is assessed in 2 ways measuring both fear/anxiety and avoidance related to specific social situations, giving a total of 48 ratings across the scale. The questions are scored from 0 (none) to 3 (severe) for a score range of 0-144 higher score indicating worse outcome. |
| Change in anxiety as assessed by the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) | Baseline, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks, post treatment (about 4 weeks after end of treatment) | This is a 20 item questionnaire and each is scored on a likert scale from 0(not at all characteristic of me)-4(Extremely characteristic of me), maximum score of 80,higher score indicating worse outcome |
| Change in anxiety as assessed by the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) | Baseline, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks, post treatment (about 4 weeks after end of treatment) | This is a 20 item questionnaire and each is scored on a likert scale from 0-4, maximum score of 80 , higher score indicating worse outcome |
| Change in anxiety as assessed by the The Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder (SMSAD) scale | Baseline, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks, post treatment (about 4 weeks after end of treatment) | This is a 10 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(never) to 4(all of the time) for a maximum score of 40, higher score indicating worse outcome |
Countries
United States
Contacts
Primary ContactKatherine Loveland, PhD
Backup ContactCraig Motsenbocker, PhD
Outcome results
None listed