A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial of In Virtuo and In Vivo Exposure for Spider Phobia

Abstract

The present study compared the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) in virtuo exposure and in vivo exposure in the treatment of spider phobia. Two treatment conditions were compared to a waiting-list condition. A 3-month follow-up evaluation was conducted in order to assess the durability of the treatment effects. Participants were randomly assigned to the treatment groups. A total of 16 participants received the in virtuo treatment, and 16 received the in vivo treatment. The waiting-list condition included 11 participants. Participants received eight 1.5-hour treatment sessions. Efficacy was measured with the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire, the Spider Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ-F), and a Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT). In addition, a clinician administered the Structured Interview for DSM-IV to assess DSM-IV's criteria for specific phobia and severity. Clinical and statistically significant improvements were found for both groups. Differences in treatment groups were found on one of five measures of fear: greater improvement on the SBQ-F beliefs subscale was associated with in vivo exposure.

Virtual reality exposure using three-dimensional images for the treatment of social phobia

“…Conversely, in vitro exposure can be difficult for people who are unable to imagine vividly, who avoid imagining their phobia-inducing situations, or who tend to overwhelm themselves with images. 8 Studies of virtual reality exposure (VRE) have demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as social phobia, 9-13 fear of flying, 14,15 acrophobia, 16,17 arachnophobia, 18,19 and panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. 20,21 VRE has advantages over imagined or in vivo exposures.…”

Virtual Realities in the Treatment of Mental Disorders: A Review of the Current State of Research

“…Michaliszyn et al [40] found similar results comparing the effectiveness of VR treatment and in-vivo exposure to a waitlist condition. A total of N= 43 persons suffering arachnophobia were randomly assigned to the three conditions.…”

Description of a Treatment Manual for in virtuo Exposure with Specific Phobia

“…The treatment is described without reference to specific software, which should facilitate its use in various settings. Outcome studies and randomized outcome trial have been conducted with success using this protocol [15,[49][50][51] or other quite similar protocols developed for a specific disorder or software (for reviews [15][16][17][18]). …”

“…The program developed at the Université du Québec en Outaouais to treat specific phobias in older children, adolescents and adults has been used with success at the university clinic, at the Pierre-Janet Hospital, in other research centers and in private practice [15,[49][50][51]. It was designed for people receiving a primary diagnosis of specific phobia [1].…”