The Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Intervention on Trauma-related Shame in Sexually Abused Adolescents: A Single-case Experimental Study

Suffering from PTSD in childhood can have detrimental formative consequences. Researchers have been eager to develop effective interventions and to enhance treatment motivation since the introduction of the diagnosis of PTSD in the DSM. With evolving understanding of the disorder, its definition and criteria have changed over the course of time. The most recent change involves the addition of the criterium D of negative affects or emotions in relation to PTSD, the feeling of shame amongst others. Individuals experiencing interpersonal trauma, such as sexual abuse, are at high-risk developing trauma-related shame, which in turn can impact the course and effectiveness of PTSD treatment. Shame-inducing situations are typically being avoided, and the feelings are not disclosed to peers and other people. Hence, acknowledging and sharing feelings of shame as well as practicing self-compassion have been proposed to reduce the impact of that negative self-conscious emotion. These aspects get partially tackled in evidence-based trauma therapies, however, there appears to be a need for a more specific trauma-related shame intervention in addition to existing treatments. Recent research has focused on developing such interventions for adults and has reported positive effects.

To our knowledge, there is no intervention specifically tackling trauma-related shame in adolescents. Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool for such an intervention. Findings suggest that including VR in a treatment results in high treatment satisfaction and that it is highly motivating for its users, which is a crucial component for treatment success.

The goal of this study is to test the effectiveness of a short-term VR shame intervention (SHINE-VR) for adolescents suffering from PTSD after having experienced sexual abuse. The primary objectives of this study to assess the effect of SHINE-VR on trauma-related shame, self-compassion, and PTSD symptom reduction, to investigate whether treatment motivation, an increase in self-compassion, and a decrease in trauma-related shame are associated with PTSD symptom reduction.