VRET for public speaking anxiety in a clinical sample: an RCT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
360° Video Virtual Reality Graded Exposure Therapy (VRET) for Public Speaking Anxiety in a Clinical Sample: a randomised control trial
IRAS ID
303773
Contact name
David Curran
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) using 360° video is an emerging treatment modality for a range of difficulties and shows promise in treating Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA) in the general population (Reeves, Curran, Gleeson & Hanna, 2021), however there has been a lack of research in people with clinical levels of social anxiety disorder (SAD).PSA is the experience of anxiety symptoms or distress associated with public speaking and is a distinct sub-type of SAD that occurs in up to 97% of SAD presentations (Beidel & Turner, 2007). It is associated with poor outcomes in educational and work settings (Aderka et al., 2013). SAD is one of the most common mental health presentations to adult services (Pilling et al., 2013).
PSA is traditionally treated with in-vivo or in-person exposure to feared social situations but often this is not practical. VRET offers a more controllable and practical exposure treatment which service users also prefer when offered the choice (Garcia-Palacios et al., 2007)
The current study will test a VRET intervention in 44 individuals with clinical levels of PSA recruited through adult mental health services. Participants will be randomised to an intervention group involving a 4-session VRET intervention, or a control group. The intervention group will attend the service for 4 sessions and take part in a public speaking task while wearing a virtual reality headset, with gradually larger audience sizes. The control group will complete weekly measures. Both groups will then be followed up after 4 weeks and measures collected for a final time.
The study hypothesises that the VRET intervention will significantly reduce PSA scores compared to the control group, and that these gains will be maintained at 4 week follow up.
Summary of Results
This study invited people who were on a waiting list for psychological therapy to take part in a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy intervention. Participants were randomly put into an intervention, or control group. The intervention involved completing a public speaking task while wearing a virtual reality headset, in front of a prerecorded audience. The study found that participants had significantly reduced public speaking anxiety when followed up four weeks after completing the intervention, compared to the control group. The intervention group also had significantly reduced social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation scores. The intervention did not show a significant effect on psychological distress (measured by the Core-10). Feeling more present in the task (like they were really there) did not seem to increase how effective it was. Participants gave positive feedback about how logical and useful they thought the intervention was.REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
22/NI/0114
Date of REC Opinion
2 Nov 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion