Preliminary study of efficacy and safety of self-administered virtual exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder vs. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Open accessAbstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most frequent mental disorders. Exposure to virtual reality can be a solution complementing standard CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) or can be used as an independent therapeutic tool. The study’s objective was to assess the safety and efficacy of using self-administered virtual reality exposure vs. CBT and CBT with virtual exposure. We assessed the efficacy of the applied intervention with the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). We compared three groups: CBT (n = 25), CBT + VR (n = 29), and self-administered therapy without aid of a therapist (n = 19). The results indicated that all three groups showed changes on the LSAS. The simple effect analysis showed that there were no differences between experimental conditions at T0 (session 1) and T1 (session 9) and that the only significant difference occurred at T2 (session 14). The pairwise comparisons showed that the participants in the VR condition scored higher on the LSAS score during the measurement at T2 than participants in CBT condition. Our study has several limitations. The presented initial study shows that the methods of CBT for social anxiety used so far are also effective, while the VR tool for self-therapy requires further research.
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In an RCT comparing CBT with VRET, CBT alone, and self-administered VRET in SAD patients, SAD symptoms significantly decreased in both CBT + VRET and CBT conditions, and these improvements were greater than in the self-administered VRET group.
“SAD symptoms significantly decreased in both the CBT + VRET and CBT conditions, and these improvements were greater than in the self-administered VRET group.”
From Virtual Reality exposure therapy in the treatment of public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder (2024) · cites this paper as Stefaniak et al., 2022
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSelf-guided VRET is inferior to CBT in reducing social anxiety symptoms post-treatment.
“Stefaniak et al. (2022) found self-guided VRET to be inferior to CBT in reducing social anxiety symptoms post-treatment”
From Virtual Reality exposure therapy in the treatment of public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder (2024) · cites this paper as Stefaniak et al., 2022
Self-guided VRET has significantly higher drop-out rates compared to therapist-led VRET.
“and reported significantly higher drop-out rates in self-guided VRET comparted to therapist-led VRET.”
From Virtual Reality exposure therapy in the treatment of public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder (2024) · cites this paper as Stefaniak et al., 2022
Apart from public speaking, job interviews comprised a considerable amount of exposure situations in VRET studies.
“Apart from public speaking situations, job interviews comprised a considerable amount of exposure situations (e.g., Bouchard et al., 2017; Stefaniak et al., 2022; Kampmann et al., 2016b).”
From Virtual Reality exposure therapy in the treatment of public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder (2024) · cites this paper as Stefaniak et al., 2022
VRET studies have used locations such as cafés, public transport, stores, and hallways.
“Where the tasks exceeded public speaking situations, cafés (Klinger et al., 2005; Geraets et al., 2019), public transport (Stefaniak et al., 2022; Geraets et al., 2019), stores (Bouchard et al., 2017; Klinger et al., 2005; Geraets et al., 2019), or hallways (Bouchard et al., 2017; Klinger et al., 2005) served as locations in VR for conducting the exposures.”
From Virtual Reality exposure therapy in the treatment of public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder (2024) · cites this paper as Stefaniak et al., 2022
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- Authors
- Stefaniak, I., Hanusz, K., Mierzejewski, P., Bieńkowski, P., Parnowski, T., & Murawiec, S.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology (PL)
- Institute of Psychology (PL)
- University of Warsaw (PL)
- Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
- Dialogue Therapy, 02-791 Warsaw, Poland
- Corresponding author
- Stefaniak, Izabela
- Venue
- Brain Sciences
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-09-13
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1236
- ISSN
- 2076-3425 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9496986
- OpenAlex
- W4295845735
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 2.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Brain Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Centre for Research and Development and Tomorrow Ltd. within the “Fast Track” program (POIR.01.01.01-00-0636/16-00)
- 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
- social anxiety disorder, virtual reality exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, self-administered therapy, treatment efficacy, treatment safety, virtual reality
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