Chard Ian, Van Zalk Nejra, Picinali Lorenzo
Design Psychology Lab, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Audio Experience Design Group, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Digit Health. 2023 Feb 9;5:1061323. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1061323. eCollection 2023.
We report on findings from the first randomized controlled pilot trial of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) developed specifically for reducing social anxiety associated with stuttering. People who stutter with heightened social anxiety were recruited from online adverts and randomly allocated to receive VRET ( = 13) or be put on a waitlist ( = 12). Treatment was delivered remotely using a smartphone-based VR headset. It consisted of three weekly sessions, each comprising both performative and interactive exposure exercises, and was guided by a virtual therapist. Multilevel model analyses failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of VRET at reducing social anxiety between pre- and post-treatment. We found similar results for fear of negative evaluation, negative thoughts associated with stuttering, and stuttering characteristics. However, VRET was associated with reduced social anxiety between post-treatment and one-month follow-up. These pilot findings suggest that our current VRET protocol may not be effective at reducing social anxiety amongst people who stutter, though might be capable of supporting longer-term change. Future VRET protocols targeting stuttering-related social anxiety should be explored with larger samples. The results from this pilot trial provide a solid basis for further design improvements and for future research to explore appropriate techniques for widening access to social anxiety treatments in stuttering.
我们报告了一项专门为减轻与口吃相关的社交焦虑而开发的虚拟现实暴露疗法（VRET）的首次随机对照试验的结果。有社交焦虑加剧的口吃者通过在线广告招募，并随机分配接受VRET（n = 13）或进入等候名单（n = 12）。使用基于智能手机的VR头显进行远程治疗。它包括每周三次的疗程，每次疗程都包括表演性和互动性暴露练习，并由虚拟治疗师指导。多层次模型分析未能证明VRET在治疗前和治疗后减轻社交焦虑方面的有效性。我们在对负面评价的恐惧、与口吃相关的负面想法以及口吃特征方面也发现了类似的结果。然而，VRET与治疗后和一个月随访之间社交焦虑的减轻有关。这些初步研究结果表明，我们目前的VRET方案可能在减轻口吃者的社交焦虑方面无效，尽管可能能够支持长期改变。未来应使用更大的样本探索针对与口吃相关的社交焦虑的VRET方案。这项初步试验的结果为进一步的设计改进以及未来研究探索扩大口吃社交焦虑治疗可及性的适当技术提供了坚实的基础。
