Self-efficacy Enhancement and Exposure Therapy
- Conditions
- Specific Phobia
- Interventions
- Other: Control interventionOther: Self-efficacy enhancement
- Registration Number
- NCT03105024
- Lead Sponsor
- Ruhr University of Bochum
- Brief Summary
Self-efficacy refers to the perceived belief to cope effectively, by personal efforts, with challenging situations and problems (Bandura, 1977). Basic research has shown that increases in perceived self-efficacy can enhance the extinction of fear (Zlomuzica et al., 2015). This study is aimed at translating these findings into a useful clinical application to augment exposure-based treatment outcome.
- Detailed Description
In this study, the effects of self-efficacy enhancement on treatment outcome in patients with height phobia will be investigated.
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the following conditions: i) virtual reality exposure + self-efficacy enhancement; ii) virtual reality exposure + control intervention; iii) virtual reality exposure only. The amount of exposure is identical across groups (i.e. maximum of 1 hour of exposure). The self-efficacy and the control intervention involve the retrieval of the exposure session with or without a focus on personal mastery experiences/achievements, respectively.
Treatment-induced changes as well as the effects of self-efficacy enhancement will be measured on the subjective level (i.e. in-vivo Behavioral Approach Tests, BATs; church tower), physiological level (heart rate during the BATs), and subjective level (subjective fear during the BATs as well as height-phobia related questionnaires) at each of the three assessments (i.e. pretreatment, after which the exposure will conducted on the same day, i.e. day 1; posttreatment, which is scheduled approximately 2-3 days after exposure, and follow-up assessment, which will take place 1-month after exposure).
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 71
- specific phobia (acrophobia)
- normal or corrected vision
- somatic or neurological disease
- personality disorder
- bipolar disorder
- acute drug- or alcoholabuse
- pharmacological treatment within the past 4 weeks
- mental retardation
- any schizophrenic disease
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Exposure + control intervention Control intervention After the virtual exposure session, participants will receive instructions to recall the exposure session Exposure + self-efficacy enhancement Self-efficacy enhancement After the virtual exposure session, participants will receive instructions to recall the exposure session with a focus on the personal mastery experiences/achievements made during exposure.
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change in the Behavioral Approach Test (BAT) from pretreatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after treatment, 1 month after) Change in subjective fear during the BAT from pretreatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after, 1 month after) Subjective fear during the BATs will be measured using the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS)
Change in heart rate reactivity during the BAT from pretreatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after, 1 month after)
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change in Acrophobia Questionnaire (AQ) assessed from pre-treatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after, 1 month after Change in Attitude Towards Heights Questionnaire (ATHQ) assessed from pre-treatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after, 1 month after Change in Danger Expectancy Scale (DES) assessed from pre-treatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after, 1 month after Change in Anxiety Expectancy Scale (AES) assessed from pre-treatment through follow-up (i.e. baseline, approx. 2-3 days after, 1 month after
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Mental Health Research and Treatment Center
🇩🇪Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany