Fear of Public Speaking (Subclinical) Clinical Trial
Official title:
Randomized Controlled Trial on the Efficacy of a VR Exposure-based Eye Contact Training‬ to Reduce Fear of Public Speaking
Investigation of the efficacy of an eye contact training App in virtual reality, based on principles of exposure therapy for the treatment for subjects with fear of public speaking.
The study will be conducted as a randomized controlled single-blind study in a parallel
groups design.
Participants will be divided into groups afraid of public speaking with and without
fulfilling the criteria of social anxiety (according to DSM-V), which can represent a
clinically relevant and more generalized form of public speaking anxiety. The treatment for
the participants solely differs in terms of whether they receive (1) the VR exposure or (2) a
fear-unrelated VR task (study phase 1) or no treatment at all (study phase 2), resulting in
the following 2 groups:
- Group 1 (treatment group) consists of individuals with fear of public speaking that will
(in study phase 1) receive a three-session VR exposure and undergo (in study phase 2) a
2-week treatment period with the same VR scenarios, each repeated three times.
- Group 2 (control group) consists of individuals with fear of public speaking that will
not receive any active treatment but complete a distractor task in VR in study phase 1
and no treatment in study phase 2.
In study phase 1, the treatment group receives three VR exposure sessions each lasting for 20
minutes, whereas the control group completes three virtual distractor tasks (e.g. virtual
tours) of identical duration. In study phase 2, the treatment group completes a home training
spanning two weeks (9 x 20-minutes sessions), whereas the control group does not receive any
treatment (untreated comparison group).
In study phase 1, before and after the virtual exposure session, participants undergo an in
vivo PST to assess the acute effects of the VR exposure-based eye contact training App.
In study phase 2, the participants undergo a third in vivo PST to assess the training effects
of the VR exposure-based eye contact training after two weeks of home training.
This design allows a direct isolation and comparison of acute effects (study phase 1) and of
training effects (study phase 2) and therefore enables an overall estimation of the
effectiveness of the VR exposure-based eye contact training.
Approximately 96 participants between 18 and 40 years with fear of public speaking will take
part in the study. Approximately 1 to 5 weeks after having finished the first study phase,
all participants that have not dropped out will take part in the second study phase.
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