Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Behav Res Ther. 2015 Nov;74:18-24. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2015.08.010. Epub 2015 Aug 31.
In virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), patients are exposed to virtual environments that resemble feared real-life situations. The aim of the current study was to assess the extent to which VRET gains can be observed in real-life situations. We conducted a meta-analysis of clinical trials applying VRET to specific phobias and measuring treatment outcome by means of behavioral laboratory tests or recordings of behavioral activities in real-life. Data sources were searches of databases (Medline, PsycInfo, and Cochrane). We included in total 14 clinical trials on specific phobias. Results revealed that patients undergoing VRET did significantly better on behavioral assessments following treatment than before treatment, with an aggregated uncontrolled effect size of g = 1.23. Furthermore, patients undergoing VRET performed better on behavioral assessments at post-treatment than patients on wait-list (g = 1.41). Additionally, results of behavioral assessment at post-treatment and at follow-up revealed no significant differences between VRET and exposure in vivo (g = -0.09 and 0.53, respectively). Finally, behavioral measurement effect sizes were similar to those calculated from self-report measures. The findings demonstrate that VRET can produce significant behavior change in real-life situations and support its application in treating specific phobias.
在虚拟现实暴露疗法 (VRET) 中，患者会暴露在类似于他们所恐惧的现实生活情境的虚拟环境中。本研究旨在评估 VRET 在现实生活情境中可以观察到的效果程度。我们对应用 VRET 治疗特定恐惧症的临床试验进行了荟萃分析，并通过行为实验室测试或现实生活中行为活动的记录来衡量治疗效果。数据来源是对数据库（Medline、PsycInfo 和 Cochrane）的搜索。我们共纳入了 14 项特定恐惧症的临床试验。结果表明，与治疗前相比，接受 VRET 的患者在治疗后进行行为评估时表现明显更好，无对照组的综合效应大小为 g = 1.23。此外，与等待治疗的患者相比，接受 VRET 的患者在治疗后进行行为评估时表现更好 (g = 1.41)。此外，治疗后和随访时的行为评估结果显示，VRET 与现场暴露治疗之间没有显著差异 (g = -0.09 和 0.53)。最后，行为测量的效果大小与从自我报告测量中计算出的效果大小相似。这些发现表明，VRET 可以在现实生活情境中产生显著的行为改变，并支持其在治疗特定恐惧症中的应用。
