A Protocol for a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Fear of Flying.

Summary

This study aims to assess whether adding vibrotactile stimulation to visual and auditory stimulation increases the efficacy of VRET for FoF treatment. Eighty-four participants (18-65 years old) will be assigned to one of three intervention arms, namely the VRET with multimodal feedback (visual, auditory, and vibrotactile; VRET-M), the VRET with bimodal feedback (visual and auditory; VRET-B), or the imagery exposure treatment (IET) without sensory feedback. FoF-related symptoms (primary outcomes) will be measured administering the Fear of Flying Questionnaire-II (QPV-II), the Fear of Flying Scale (FFS), and the Visual Analogic Scale (VAS-A) before and after eight sessions of treatment, and at six- and 12-month follow-ups. Anxiety and the sense of presence experienced during exposure sessions (secondary outcome measures: VAS-A and VAS-P) will also be assessed. It is expected that participants in the VRET-M group will report a further reduction of FoF-related symptomatology after the treatment and at follow-ups compared to participants in the VRET-B and IET groups. Likewise, participants in the VRET-M group are expected to show higher sense of presence levels during exposure sessions in comparison to participants in the VRET-B and IET groups. It is expected that the IET group will report the lowest level of sense of presence and the poorest outcome after treatment and at follow-ups.

Conditions

• Aerophobia
• Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
• Randomized Controlled Trial
• Anxiety

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual reality-based exposure treatment with multimodal feedback (VRET-M)

The VRET-M group will experience visual, auditive and vibrotactile cues in the exposure sessions.

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual reality-based exposure treatment with bimodal feedback (VRET-B)

The VRET-B group will experience visual and auditive cues in the exposure sessions.

BEHAVIORAL

Imagery exposure treatment (IET)

The IET group will experience its own subjective imagined environment without any external stimulation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Barcelona

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• José MR Gutiérrez Maldonado, PhD · Senior PhD Supervisor

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-09-01

Primary Completion

2023-10-15

Completion

2024-01-31

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations