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Smartphone-Based Exposure Treatment for Dental Anxiety

NCT03461016 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 37

Last updated 2020-05-26

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Exposure therapy, including its self-directed forms, is effective for treatment of specific phobias. Nevertheless, there are issues with patient adherence in the use of exposure therapy, including its self-directed formats. Technological advancements, as with smartphones, may improve adherence to self-directed exposure therapy, perhaps due to exposure stimuli being more readily accessible. Thus, there is a need to examine how presenting phobic material on a smartphone might promote increased adherence in conducting self-directed exposure. Additionally, exposure can incorporate phobic material from different perspectives (i.e., first-person or third-person), which is one factor that may impact treatment effectiveness. Participants will be randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition, and complete a pre-assessment and then a post-assessment two weeks later. The assessment consists of a multimodal approach (e.g., self-report, physiological response, and overt behavior). Participants in the treatment condition will be instructed to watch a standard exposure video of a dental examination and prophylaxis three times daily for two weeks. One week of videos was shown in a first-person perspective and the same video will be shown in a third-person perspective for one week. The study can demonstrate the potential utility of smartphone-based self-directed exposure therapy for specific phobia.

Conditions

  • Phobic Disorders
  • Dental Anxiety
  • Treatment Outcome

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Exposure Therapy

"Exposure therapy is a form of behavior therapy that is widely used to treat anxiety disorders, including specific phobia. It involves systematic and repeated confrontation with a feared stimulus. It works by (a) implosive therapy, habituation, in which repeated exposure reduces anxiety over time by a process of extinction; (b) disconfirming fearful predictions; and (c) increasing feelings of self-efficacy and mastery. In vivo exposure \[is\] a type of exposure therapy, generally used for treating individuals with phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other anxiety disorders, in which the client directly experiences anxiety-provoking situations or stimuli in real-world conditions." (VandenBos, 2015)

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • West Virginia University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Daneil W McNeil, PhD · West Virginia University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2016-04-01
Primary Completion
2018-12-31
Completion
2018-12-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03461016 on ClinicalTrials.gov