Appropriate number of treatment sessions in virtual reality-based individual cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder
Open accessAbstract
Virtual reality (VR) was introduced to maximize the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) by efficiently performing exposure therapy. The purpose of this study was to find out whether VR-based individual CBT with relatively few treatment sessions is effective in improving social anxiety disorder (SAD). This therapy was applied to 115 patients with SAD who were retrospectively classified into 43 patients who completed the nine or 10 sessions normally (normal termination group), 52 patients who finished the sessions early (early termination group), and 20 patients who had extended the sessions (session extension group). The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE) scores tended to decrease in all groups as the session progressed, and the slope of decrease was the steepest in the early termination group and the least steep in the session extension group. Severity of social anxiety in the last session and symptom reduction rate showed no significant group difference. Our findings suggest that short-term VR-based individual CBT of nine to 10 sessions may be effective. When the therapeutic effect is insufficient during this period, the additional benefit may be minimal if the session is simply extended. The improvement in the early termination group suggests that even shorter sessions of five or six can also be effective.
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Nine to ten VR-based sessions could provide an effective treatment for SAD.
“suggesting that nine to ten VR-based sessions could provide an effective treatment for SAD (Jeong et al., 2021).”
From Virtual reality acceptance and commitment therapy intervention for social and public speaking anxiety: A randomized controlled trial (2023) · cites this paper as Jeong et al., 2021
Even shorter sessions could be effective in treating social anxiety.
“However, there are indications that even shorter sessions could be effective in treating social anxiety (Jeong et al., 2021).”
From Virtual reality acceptance and commitment therapy intervention for social and public speaking anxiety: A randomized controlled trial (2023) · cites this paper as Jeong et al., 2021
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- Authors
- Jeong, H. S., Lee, J. H., Kim, H. E., & Kim, J.-J.
- Affiliations
- Yonsei University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Kim, Jae-Jin
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Medicine
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-02-26
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 915
- ISSN
- 2077-0383 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7956456
- OpenAlex
- W3133771550
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 4.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- YUHSpace (Yonsei University Medical Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- 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
- virtual reality, cognitive behavioral therapy, social anxiety disorder, exposure therapy, number of treatment sessions, early termination, treatment duration, fear of negative evaluation
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