Work

Preliminary Study of Efficacy and Safety of Self-Administered Virtual Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder vs. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most frequent mental disorders. Exposure to virtual reality can be a solution complementing standard CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) or can be used as an independent therapeutic tool. The study’s objective was to assess the safety and efficacy of using self-administered virtual reality exposure vs. CBT and CBT with virtual exposure. We assessed the efficacy of the applied intervention with the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). We compared three groups: CBT (n = 25), CBT + VR (n = 29), and self-administered therapy without aid of a therapist (n = 19). The results indicated that all three groups showed changes on the LSAS. The simple effect analysis showed that there were no differences between experimental conditions at T0 (session 1) and T1 (session 9) and that the only significant difference occurred at T2 (session 14). The pairwise comparisons showed that the participants in the VR condition scored higher on the LSAS score during the measurement at T2 than participants in CBT condition. Our study has several limitations. The presented initial study shows that the methods of CBT for social anxiety used so far are also effective, while the VR tool for self-therapy requires further research.

Source: Brain Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12091236

Authors: Izabela Stefaniak, Krzysztof Hanusz, Paweł Mierzejewski, Przemysław Bieńkowski, Tadeusz Parnowski, Sławomir Murawiec

Institutions: Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Warsaw

Language: English

Topic: Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,094