Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A randomized controlled trial (NU23-04-00402)
Basic information
Investigator: MUDr. Pavla Stopková, PhD.
Main recipient: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Research period: 1/5/2023 - 31/12/2026
Total budget: 9 981 000 CZK
Supported by: Czech Health Research Council (AZV ČR)
Annotation
Virtual reality is currently a frequently applied method in the treatment of mental illness in the form of Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET; exposure to feared situations or activities) with a focus on the treatment of phobias and other anxiety disorders. However, there are only few studies on the use of VRET in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), although exposure and response prevention is a key therapeutic component in this target group. Some studies have confirmed the ability of provoking virtual environments to induce anxiety and controlling tendencies in patients with OCD, but there are no larger clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of VRET in OCD. Because obsessions and compulsions tend to be heterogeneous and changing over time, and the clinical presentation of individual patients often varies greatly, the dimensional model dividing symptoms into several clusters (contamination/cleaning, checking and symmetry) was considered when designing our VRET software. In an applied virtual home environment, similarly to a classic in-vivo exposure, the user is exposed to feared situations, which he/she has to face without performing a typical compulsion. We aim to strengthen the fidelity of the simulated situation by implementing the olfactory stimuli during VRET. The degree of anxiety caused by VR exposure is assessed through subjective scales and a physiological measurement. The project will focus on evaluating the level of efficiency of VRET methods in two parallel studies. The first study will monitor the use of VRET in a form of a complementary method in enriched Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and evaluate its efficiency in comparison with another type of VR intervention utilizing cognitive training aimed at inhibitory control and mental flexibility. The second study will focus on the application of VRET as an independent method combined with basic education that could find its application in an outpatient clinical practice.