Virtual Environments for Childhood Social Phobia

描述（由申请人提供）：焦虑症是青少年中最常见的精神疾病，终生患病率在一般人群的18-20%之间。在焦虑症中，社交恐惧症（SP）影响了8%的青少年，导致显著的短期和长期损害，包括药物滥用的可能性增加，学业成绩有限，职业功能减弱，以及社会关系受损或缺失。新出现的数据表明，干预措施，包括社会技能培训，正式的同侪泛化会议，和家庭作业作为整体治疗策略的一部分，显示出增强的疗效相比，没有这些组件的干预措施-后两个元素，旨在提高技能泛化。两个关键的治疗要素（同伴推广，家庭作业）难以在传统的临床环境中实施，限制了在不同环境中（例如，在学校、门诊或社区设施）。这第一阶段STTR，写在响应PA-07-423计算工具的研究神经科学，行为科学和心理健康，将开发和验证一组交互式的虚拟环境，以解决需要密集的行为练习的机会，是关键的技能推广，从而提高传播和提供一个模型，为未来的努力。虚拟环境使儿童用户能够在任何标准计算机上与虚拟学校角色进行交互，从而允许日常密集的社交技能练习，而不需要正式的同龄人群体活动（诊所解决方案）或密集的父母参与（家庭解决方案）。虚拟角色的响应将是预先确定和预先编程的，但似乎对用户的交互做出响应，从而创建模拟的现场场景。这种新颖的、商业上可行的干预措施包括诊所和家庭两个部分，通过在模拟的社交虚拟环境中反复练习，促进将通过传统社交技能培训获得的社交技能转移到儿童的现实生活中，从而优化临床服务。一旦开发和验证，这种可销售的资源将加强对各种治疗环境的循证行为干预的治疗传播，并提供易于适用于其他疾病的技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders among youth, with lifetime prevalence ranging between 18-20% of the general population. Among anxiety disorders, social phobia (SP) affects 8% of all youth, resulting in significant short and long-term impairment, including increased likelihood of substance abuse, limited academic achievement, attenuated occupational functioning, and impaired or missing social relationships. Emerging data suggest that interventions that include social skills training, formal peer generalization sessions, and homework assignments as part of an overall treatment strategy show enhanced efficacy when compared to interventions without these components - the latter two elements which are designed to enhance skill generalization. Two critical treatment elements (peer generalization, homework assignments) are difficult to implement in traditional clinical settings, limiting optimal dissemination to youth in need of these services in different settings (e.g., at school, outpatient, or community facilities). This Phase I STTR, written in response to PA-07-423 Computational Tools for Research in Neuroscience, Behavioral Science and Mental Health, will develop and validate an interactive set of virtual environments to solve the need for intensive behavioral practice opportunities that are critical for skill generalization, thereby enhancing dissemination and providing a model for future efforts. Virtual environments enable the child user to interact with virtual school characters on any standard computer, allowing daily intensive practice of social skills without the need for formal peer group activities (in-clinic solution) or intensive parental involvement (at-home solution).The virtual character responses will be predetermined and preprogrammed yet appear to be responsive to the users interactions, creating a simulated live scenario. This novel and commercially viable intervention with both in-clinic and at-home components will optimize clinical services by promoting the transfer of social skills acquired through traditional social skills training into real-life situations for children through repeated practice in a simulated social virtual environment. Once developed and validated, this marketable resource will enhance treatment dissemination of an evidence-based behavioral intervention to various treatment settings and provide technology readily adaptable for other disorders.