A comparative study of virtual reality versus in vivo exposure in the cognitive behavior treatment of social phobia

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada)0 sites59 target enrollmentSeptember 23, 2010

Overview

Registry

who.int

Start Date

September 23, 2010

End Date

August 18, 2011

Last Updated

5 years ago

Study Type

Interventional

Sex

All

Sponsor

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada)

•1\. Ambulatory men and women
•2\. At least 18 years old and at most 65 years old
•3\. French speaking
•4\. Receiving a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD) according to DSM\-IV\-TR?s diagnostic criteria. Assessed at a psychiatric interview, standardized with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID)
•5\. Suffering from SAD since at least two years
•6\. If currently taking medication for SAD, pharmacotherapy must be stabilized (same type and dosage) for at least six months and the social phobia remained stable and uncured (i.e., still meeting diagnostic criteria despite take the medication)
•Note that there is no perfect solution to the problem of medication since most severe cases already receive Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) from their doctors when they seek psychological treatments (thus, recruiting non\-medicated participants would threaten the feasibility of the study and could lead to the selection of less severe cases) and stopping medication would induce other methodological problems (e.g., withdrawal symptoms, artificial peak of severity at pre\-treatment, ethical issues).

•1\. Currently suffering from a severe organic disease, dementia, mental retardation, schizophrenia, amnesia, psychosis or bipolar disorder
•2\. The SAD being secondary to any DSM\-IV Axis\-III diagnosis
•3\. Receiving any form of concurrent psychotherapy