3D Video Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Study

Acrophobia Clinical Trial

— 3D-VVRET  

Official title:

3D Video Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (3D-VVRET) Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Enrolling by invitation

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02584387
• Other study ID #: 2015-08-0008
• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Phase: N/A
• First received: October 20, 2015
• Last updated: October 25, 2017
• Start date: September 2016
• Est. completion date: September 2019

Study information

• Verified date: October 2017
• Source: University of Texas at Austin
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study seeks to examine a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) using the 3D Video Virtual Reality (VR) technology for the fear of spiders.

Description:

An estimated 10-11% of the US population experiences a specific phobia at some point in their lives (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Magee et al., 1996). About 60-85% of those individuals with a specific phobia never seek treatment (Agras, Sylvester, & Oliveau, 1969; Boyd et al., 1990; Magee et al., 1996). Clinical psychologist can help improve the number of phobia sufferers to seek treatment. Advances in technology are helping clinicians create novel treatment strategies for different anxiety disorders. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) may help these individuals confront their fears and treat their phobia.

While virtual reality exposure therapy has shown promise in research (Powers & Emmelkamp, 2008), studies have shown that many users complain that the computer generated virtual reality (VR) stimuli looks unrealistic, eccentric and too much like a video game (Kwon, Powell, & Chalmers, 2013). Virtual reality environments have been traditionally created by programmers using video game assets and computer generated imagery (CGI). While CGI can be used to make intricate virtual environments, unless there is a team of expert digital artists, the virtual stimulus may end up looking rudimentary and exhibit a number of graphical glitches which could prove distracting in therapy. Furthermore CGI often suffers from the uncanny valley effect: the tendency of CGI representations of people to be viewed as unsettling as the representations become more lifelike. In addition the many current CGI virtual reality packages are expensive and only available for limited number of fear domains. Recently however an exciting alternative to traditional computer generated virtual reality has emerged: ortho-stereoscopic 3D Video VR. Ortho-stereoscopic 3D refers to 3D videos that are designed to mimic the natural depth we normally see, as opposed to exaggerating it (i.e. Commercial 3D movies). The benefit of 3D VR as opposed to CGI VR is that it is photo realistic, does not suffer from a uncanny valley effect of CGI, and is able to capture nuances of real life fears that are hard to reproduce with CGI.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Enrollment: 40
• Est. completion date: September 2019
• Est. primary completion date: September 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• • Between the ages of 18 and 65

• At least one standard deviation above the SONA pool mean on Fear of Spiders Questionnaire or Acrophobia Questionnaire.

Exclusion Criteria:

• • Hearing or visually impaired where they cannot use the VRET gear

• Currently (or in the last 3 months) receiving exposure-based treatment for acrophobia or arachnophobia

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Acrophobia
• Arachnophobia

Intervention

Behavioral:
• 3D Video Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
The 3D video exposure therapy treatment will be administered using an oculus rift virtual reality headset. The oculus rift is a new, affordable virtual reality headset, which uses two different spherical lenses to induce a sense of stereoscopic 3D. Ortho-stereoscopic 3D refers to 3D videos that are designed to mimic the natural depth we normally see, as opposed to exaggerating it (i.e. Commercial 3D movies). To create these 3D videos, the UT 3D Department shot videos of live spiders using a stereoscopic 3D dual camera rig, which simultaneously shoots footage with two cameras positioned apart from each other in a way that mimics the natural pupillary distance between our right and left eyes. To create a sense of 3D depth, the footage of the right and left cameras is then projected on the two different lenses of the oculus rift, creating a sense of depth to the viewer through retinal disparity.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	The University of Texas at Austin	Austin	Texas

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Texas at Austin

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Fear of Spiders Questionnaire		Pre-treatment and 1 week follow-up
Secondary	Behavioral Approach Test		Pre-treatment and Post-treatment
Secondary	Acceptance and Action Questionnaire		Pre-treatment
Secondary	State-Trait Anxiety Inventory		Pre-treatment
Secondary	Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI-3)		Pre-treatment
Secondary	Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS)		Pre-treatment
Secondary	Disgust Emotion Scale		Pre-treatment
Secondary	Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale (DPSS-R)		Pre-treatment