Exposure to virtual social interactions in the treatment of social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were recruited via online and newspaper advertisements, the website of the ambulatory of the University of Amsterdam, and the project's website. Sixty participants (Mage = 36.9 years, age range: 18–65 years) meeting the criteria for a primary diagnosis of SAD according to the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) were included and randomly assigned to one of three conditions (20 participants each; see Fig. 1
Results
Analyses of variance, chi-squares and Fisher's exact tests revealed no significant differences between VRET, iVET, and waiting-list on demographic characteristics and outcome measures at preassessment (ps > 0.05) apart from perceived stress (p = .011). The results of the multilevel regression analyses are presented in Table 3. For descriptive statistics see Table 2.
Discussion
The present study investigated the efficacy of VRET as a stand-alone treatment for individuals with SAD comprising heterogeneous social fears. The results revealed that participants in both VRET and iVET improved from pre-to postassessment on social anxiety, avoidance, speech duration during a behavioural assessment task, perceived stress, and avoidant personality disorder related beliefs when compared to the waiting-list control group. Participants receiving iVET, but not VRET, improved on
Acknowledgements
This project (055.10.207) was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The authors have no financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
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