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Using Immersive Virtual Reality to Treat Pediatric Anxiety

NCT04504773 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 3

Last updated 2023-02-21

No results posted yet for this study

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.

Conditions

  • Specific Phobia
  • Specific Phobia, Situational
  • Specific Phobia, Animal
  • Specific Phobia, Natural Environment
  • Childhood Anxiety Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Participants will receive a single session of virtual reality exposure therapy that targets the participant's specific phobia stimuli.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Joseph F. McGuire, PhD · Johns Hopkins University

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
8 Years
Max Age
17 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2020-09-17
Primary Completion
2022-01-12
Completion
2023-02-14

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

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 NCT04504773 on ClinicalTrials.gov