A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial of In Virtuo and In Vivo Exposure for Spider Phobia
Abstract
The present study compared the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) in virtuo exposure and in vivo exposure in the treatment of spider phobia. Two treatment conditions were compared to a waiting-list condition. A 3-month follow-up evaluation was conducted in order to assess the durability of the treatment effects. Participants were randomly assigned to the treatment groups. A total of 16 participants received the in virtuo treatment, and 16 received the in vivo treatment. The waiting-list condition included 11 participants. Participants received eight 1.5-hour treatment sessions. Efficacy was measured with the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire, the Spider Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ-F), and a Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT). In addition, a clinician administered the Structured Interview for DSM-IV to assess DSM-IV's criteria for specific phobia and severity. Clinical and statistically significant improvements were found for both groups. Differences in treatment groups were found on one of five measures of fear: greater improvement on the SBQ-F beliefs subscale was associated with in vivo exposure.
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Virtual Reality exposure is not significantly less effective than in vivo exposure for various anxiety disorders, including specific phobia.
“Specifically, the meta-analysis conducted by Power and Emmelkamp [29] demonstrated that In vivo exposure (IVE) is not significantly more effective than VR exposure (VRE) for various anxiety disorders (including SP).”
From In Vivo versus augmented reality exposure in the treatment of small animal phobia: A randomized controlled trial (2016) · cites this paper as [35]
The data from this study coincide with findings from studies where VR was used to treat specific phobia (animal subtype), where VR was effective in reducing fear and avoidance.
“Similarly, data from the present study also coincide with findings from studies where VR was used to treat SP (animal subtype), such as those by [31, 33–35,75,76]; where VR was effective in reducing the fear and avoidance experienced by the participants.”
From In Vivo versus augmented reality exposure in the treatment of small animal phobia: A randomized controlled trial (2016) · cites this paper as [35]
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- Authors
- Michaliszyn, D., Marchand, A., Bouchard, S., Martel, M.-O., & Poirier-Bisson, J.
- Affiliations
- Université du Québec à Montréal (CA)
- Université du Québec en Outaouais (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Michaliszyn, David
- Venue
- Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-05-03
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 689-695
- ISSN
- 2152-2715 (ISSN-L)
- 2152-2723
- OpenAlex
- W2016568692
- Cited by
- 90
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Université du Québec à Montréal
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- spider phobia, virtual reality exposure therapy, in vivo exposure therapy, specific phobia, avoidance behavior, treatment durability
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Computer Simulation, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Implosive Therapy, Interview, Psychological, Male, Middle Aged, Phobic Disorders, Surveys and Questionnaires, Severity of Illness Index, Spiders, User-Computer Interface, Treatment Outcome, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Intention to Treat Analysis
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