The potential of Virtual Reality as anxiety management tool: a randomized controlled study in a sample of patients affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder
The potential of Virtual Reality as anxiety management tool: a randomized controlled study in a sample of patients affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder
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DOI：
10.1186/1745-6215-9-25
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发表时间：
2008-05-05
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Riva, Giuseppe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gorini, Alessandra;Riva, Giuseppe
背景：广泛性焦虑症(GAD)是一种精神障碍，其特征是持续的、非特异性的焦虑，干扰日常生活活动。它在普通人群中的高患病率及其造成的严重局限性，表明有必要寻找新的有效策略来治疗它。与认知行为疗法一起，放松是治疗广泛性阿尔茨海默病的一种有效方法，但它有很难学习的局限性。为了克服这一限制，我们建议使用虚拟现实(VR)来通过可视化地向受试者呈现关键的放松图像来促进放松过程。虚拟平静情景的视觉呈现可以促进患者练习和掌握放松，使体验比大多数受试者利用自己的想象力和记忆创造的体验更生动和真实，并在高度在场感觉诱导的体验中触发广泛的授权过程。根据这些前提，本研究的目的是探讨使用基于VR的放松方案在减少受GAD影响的患者焦虑方面的优势。方法/设计：本试验基于随机对照研究，包括三组患者，每组25名患者(共75名患者)：(1)VR组，(2)非VR组；(3)等候名单组。VR组的患者将被教授使用VR放松环境和视听移动叙事来放松；非VR组的患者将被教导使用向VR组提出的相同放松叙事来放松，但没有VR支持，而WL组的患者将不接受任何形式的放松训练。心理测量学和心理生理学结果将作为数量因变量，而参与者的主观报告将作为质量因变量。结论：我们认为，使用VR进行放松是治疗广泛性AD的一种有前途的方法，因为它通过激发临场感来提高放松体验的质量。这项对照试验将能够评估在放松时使用VR的效果，同时保留随机化的好处以减少偏见。试验注册：NCT00602212(临床试验。Gov)。
Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a constant and unspecific anxiety that interferes with daily-life activities. Its high prevalence in general population and the severe limitations it causes, point out the necessity to find new efficient strategies to treat it. Together with the cognitive-behavioural treatments, relaxation represents a useful approach for the treatment of GAD, but it has the limitation that it is hard to be learned. To overcome this limitation we propose the use of virtual reality (VR) to facilitate the relaxation process by visually presenting key relaxing images to the subjects. The visual presentation of a virtual calm scenario can facilitate patients' practice and mastery of relaxation, making the experience more vivid and real than the one that most subjects can create using their own imagination and memory, and triggering a broad empowerment process within the experience induced by a high sense of presence.According to these premises, the aim of the present study is to investigate the advantages of using a VR-based relaxation protocol in reducing anxiety in patients affected by GAD.Methods/Design: The trial is based on a randomized controlled study, including three groups of 25 patients each (for a total of 75 patients): (1) the VR group, (2) the non-VR group and (3) the waiting list (WL) group. Patients in the VR group will be taught to relax using a VR relaxing environment and audio-visual mobile narratives; patients in the non-VR group will be taught to relax using the same relaxing narratives proposed to the VR group, but without the VR support, and patients in the WL group will not receive any kind of relaxation training. Psychometric and psychophysiological outcomes will serve as quantitative dependent variables, while subjective reports of participants will be used as qualitative dependent variables.Conclusion: We argue that the use of VR for relaxation represents a promising approach in the treatment of GAD since it enhances the quality of the relaxing experience through the elicitation of the sense of presence. This controlled trial will be able to evaluate the effects of the use of VR in relaxation while preserving the benefits of randomization to reduce bias.Trial Registration: NCT00602212 (ClinicalTrials. gov).