Application of Virtual Reality Technology to Treatment of Social Anxiety

Part of paid clinical trials in Houston, Texas.

Sponsor
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Study ID
NCT06845488
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - N/A
Healthy Volunteers
Not accepted

Interventions

  • CBT — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will receive will receive 12 weeks of weekly CBT for Social Anxiety, including an intervention to improve conversational skills. The CBT for Social Anxiety will include "imaginal exposure", which is a way of using the imagination to work with situations that produce anxiety. Participants will also receive a mindfulness intervention.
  • VR — DEVICE
    The VR software, the Virtual Communicator (VC) consists of a highly realistic avatar that interacts with the client in one of several situations. The therapist controls its gestures, facial expressions, body movements, and speech and builds and saves modular combinations of gestures and facial expressions that can be assembled in any order to create a conversational interaction. The software has two adult avatars of ambiguous race/ethnicity, male and female. The VC is delivered without a headset interactively over the internet, on a secure, password-protected connection that increase access by not requiring headsets and not requiring the client to come to the office. The VC can be done in English, or in Spanish where appropriate. Treatment will be done for 12 sessions. The VR software is used to provide CBT exposures to reduce anxiety and also to practice social interactions.

Study Details

The purpose of this study is to compare CBT VR exposure + VR social skills treatment to CBT Imaginal exposure + mindfulness, in reducing the severity of social anxiety in adults with autism and social anxiety (SA), to identify characteristics associated with benefitting from the CBT-VR treatment and to assess acceptability and feasibility of the VR intervention for patients receiving it and use findings to improve methods and to prepare for a community based pragmatic trial.

Key Dates

Start date
Nov 7, 2024
Status verified
Jul 2025
Primary completion
Mar 1, 2026
Completion
Mar 31, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment
40 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: Virtual Reality (VR) assisted Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
  • Active Comparator: CBT alone

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in anxiety as assessed by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks, post treatment (about 4 weeks after end of treatment)) ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
The University of Texas Health Science Center at HoustonHoustonTexas77030
Katherine Loveland, PhD
[email protected]
(713) 486-2587
Craig Motsenbocker, PhD
[email protected])
(713) 486-2700

Find similar trials in Houston, TX

By condition
Autism spectrum disorder
By specialty
Pediatrics
By research site
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston· Houston, TX

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