Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
Área de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Internacional Valenciana, Valencia, Spain.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 15;18(2):e0281338. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281338. eCollection 2023.
Specific phobias are a common anxiety disorder that deteriorates the lives of people who suffer from them. To reduce the symptoms produced by this mental disorder exposure therapies have been used. However, low- and middle-income countries, including Mexico, have the lowest rate of treatment due to multiple barriers that prevent addressing mental health problems. Self-applied treatments have been explored in previous studies, nevertheless, high dropout rates are a common problem in this kind of treatment. An alternative is using immersive self-applied treatments that could help increase adherence to the treatment. This article aims to present a study protocol to explore the feasibility of an Internet self-applied exposure treatment for rat phobias, using four types of immersive multimedia elements: images, videos, video games, and 360° videos. Also, the satisfaction and perception of a Virtual Therapy Assistant (VTA) that provides information and support to the user are described. The study protocol will compare two groups of participants, one on the waiting list, and the other will receive the self-applied treatment for rat phobia supported by the VTA. For this study, 45 participants will be recruited and the evaluation measures will be taken at four different times: baseline, post-treatment, and follow-ups at 3 and 6 months. The levels of anxiety and avoidance of the user manifested during the exposure to the multimedia elements, the improvement of the user's clinical symptoms, the level of satisfaction, the perception of effectiveness, and ease of use of the self-applied system will be evaluated. This study is expected to support the viability of self-applied treatment for rat phobias and the use of a VTA, showing the impact on treatment adherence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore an exposure treatment for rats using different multimedia elements with the support of a VTA. The work will serve as a basis for the development of new virtual assistants that help in the treatment of other types of specific phobias. This research has been registered in Clinical Trials NCT (NCT05081323).
特定恐惧症是一种常见的焦虑障碍，会恶化患者的生活。为了减轻这种精神障碍产生的症状，已经使用了暴露疗法。然而，包括墨西哥在内的中低收入国家由于多种障碍，治疗率最低，这些障碍阻止了人们解决心理健康问题。在之前的研究中已经探索了自我应用的治疗方法，但是，这种治疗方法的辍学率很高是一个常见的问题。另一种方法是使用沉浸式自我应用的治疗方法，这可能有助于提高对治疗的依从性。本文旨在介绍一项研究方案，探索使用四种沉浸式多媒体元素（图片、视频、视频游戏和 360°视频）为老鼠恐惧症提供互联网自我应用暴露治疗的可行性，同时还描述了对虚拟治疗助手（VTA）的满意度和感知，该助手为用户提供信息和支持。该研究方案将比较两组参与者，一组在等待名单上，另一组将接受由 VTA 支持的老鼠恐惧症自我应用治疗。在这项研究中，将招募 45 名参与者，并在四个不同时间点进行评估措施：基线、治疗后以及 3 个月和 6 个月的随访。将评估用户在暴露于多媒体元素时的焦虑和回避程度、用户临床症状的改善程度、满意度水平、有效性感知以及自我应用系统的易用性。这项研究有望支持老鼠恐惧症的自我应用治疗和 VTA 的使用，展示其对治疗依从性的影响。据我们所知，这是第一项使用 VTA 支持的不同多媒体元素探索老鼠暴露治疗的研究。这项工作将为开发有助于治疗其他类型特定恐惧症的新虚拟助手提供基础。这项研究已在临床试验 NCT（NCT05081323）中注册。
