Virtual Reality and Concept of Control in the Treatment of Acrophobia

NCT ID: NCT02020824

Last Updated: 2015-10-30

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

60 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2014-04-30

Study Completion Date

2017-07-31

Brief Summary

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Virtual reality is currently used as a therapeutic strategy in common phobia as agoraphobia or acrophobia, since it permits to have a better control (on occurrence of events or on the environment) during the therapy than in "in vivo" therapy. Our hypothesis here is that we can improves the therapeutic effects of the virtual exposure by giving control to acrophobic patients during their exposure.

Detailed Description

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The study is based on the exposure of acrophobic patients to virtual environments. During the study, several groups of patients will be distributed according to different conditions: exposure to anxiogenous virtual environments and exposure with the ability to control and secure the anxiogenous virtual environments.

The interest of this project is to improve therapy by exposure to virtual reality. Our project offers a systematic therapeutic approach (using virtual reality and the concept of control) where current therapy are too often approximate. We aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control of virtual environments on symptomatic and psychophysiological levels, to evaluate the adoption of these methods in the couple patients-caregivers and also to understand the brain mechanisms (including those prefrontal) involved in this therapy.

Conditions

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Phobic Disorders

Keywords

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Acrophobia

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Exposure without control

Exposure to anxiogenous environments: 20 acrophobic patients will be exposed during 8 sessions to anxiogenous environments without control.

Imagery with functional MRI initial. Imagery with functional MRI final. Imagery with PET-scanner initial. Imagery with PET-scanner final.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Exposure to anxiogenous environments

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The anxiogenous environments are defined by several levels of possible anxiety classified progressively and independently by each patient at the beginning of the study. The exposure is applied during the 8 sessions for each of the arms "Exposure to anxiogenous environments (with or without control)".

Imagery with functional MRI initial

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during their first visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with PET-scanner initial

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during their first visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with functional MRI final

Intervention Type OTHER

Patients will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during a follow-up visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with PET-scanner final

Intervention Type OTHER

Patients will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during a follow-up visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Exposure with control

Exposure to anxiogenous environments: 20 acrophobic patients will be exposed during 8 sessions to anxiogenous environments with the ability to control and secure these.

Imagery with functional MRI initial. Imagery with functional MRI final. Imagery with PET-scanner initial. Imagery with PET-scanner final.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Exposure to anxiogenous environments

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The anxiogenous environments are defined by several levels of possible anxiety classified progressively and independently by each patient at the beginning of the study. The exposure is applied during the 8 sessions for each of the arms "Exposure to anxiogenous environments (with or without control)".

Imagery with functional MRI initial

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during their first visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with PET-scanner initial

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during their first visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with functional MRI final

Intervention Type OTHER

Patients will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during a follow-up visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with PET-scanner final

Intervention Type OTHER

Patients will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during a follow-up visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Healthy volunteers

20 healthy volunteers will be submitted to the same initial measurements in order to explore potential differences between them and the patients.

Imagery with functional MRI initial. Imagery with PET-scanner initial.

Group Type OTHER

Imagery with functional MRI initial

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during their first visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Imagery with PET-scanner initial

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during their first visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Interventions

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Exposure to anxiogenous environments

The anxiogenous environments are defined by several levels of possible anxiety classified progressively and independently by each patient at the beginning of the study. The exposure is applied during the 8 sessions for each of the arms "Exposure to anxiogenous environments (with or without control)".

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Imagery with functional MRI initial

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during their first visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Intervention Type OTHER

Imagery with PET-scanner initial

Subjects will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during their first visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Intervention Type OTHER

Imagery with functional MRI final

Patients will be submitted to 1 session of fMRI during a follow-up visit, in order to identify and evaluate the activation of cerebral fields involved during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Intervention Type OTHER

Imagery with PET-scanner final

Patients will be submitted to 1 session of PET-scanner during a follow-up visit, in order to measure the synaptic activity during the exposure to anxiogenous environments.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* 18 to 60 years old
* Male or female
* All subjects will be fluent in French.
* Fully informed and freely given, signed Informed consent in written form.
* Patient / Subject affiliated or beneficiary of a social/health security insurance.


* Patients not hospitalized suffering from acrophobia (according to DSM-IV, APA 2000).
* Patients receiving pharmacotherapy (anxiolytics, hypnotics, etc.) may be included provided they are stabilized on treatment for at least 8 weeks.
* Score inferior to 6 at the Behavioural Avoidance Test


* People not hospitalized showing no sign of acrophobia.
* Score superior or equal to 10 at the Behavioural Avoidance Test.

Exclusion Criteria

* Pregnant woman (urine and blood β -HCG test) or lactating (contraindication to PET-scan).
* Women of childbearing potential without effective contraception (contraindication to PET-scan).
* Subject participating in another research evaluating other treatments including a period of exclusion still ongoing.
* Persons under guardianship and adults subject submitted to a measure of legal protection or unable to consent.
* Persons deprived of their liberty by a judicial or administrative decision, those hospitalized without consent under Articles L. 3212-1 and L. 3213-1 that do not fall under the provisions of Article L. 1121-8 and admitted to a health or social institution for purposes other than research.
* People with a non-stabilized diabetes (contraindication to PET-scan).
* Addictions to alcohol or drugs.
* Persons suffering from claustrophobia.
* Contraindications to fMRI.
* People with hearing loss.
* Strong visual impairment (\> 5 diopters) not corrected by contact lenses.


* Patients continuing psychotherapy.
* Patients suffering from other neurological disorders or comorbid psychiatric diseases than acrophobia.
* Patients suffering from severe organic disorders that could disable or disrupt the therapeutic process.
* The concomitant drugs at inclusion should not be modified or discontinued during the study.
* No psychotherapy should be initiated during the study.


\- Subjects with a known psychiatric or neurological disorders, diagnosed for depression, with emotional disorders affecting their perception of the environment, or taking a medication that may affect the auditory and visual perception, concentration or emotions.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

60 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Qualissima

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Eric MALBOS, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Service hospitalo-universitaire de psychologie médicale de psychiatrie d'adultes du Pr Lançon - CHU Marseille

Daniel MESTRE, PhD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

DR2, UMR 6233 CNRS; Université de la Méditerranée; CRVM

Stéphanie KHALFA, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

CR1, Institut des Neurosciences Timone, Marseille

Locations

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Service hospitalo-universitaire de psychologie médicale de psychiatrie d'adultes du Pr Lançon - CHU Marseille

Marseille, , France

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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France

Central Contacts

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Eric MALBOS, MD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 0491746287

Email: [email protected]

Eric GUEDJ, MD, PD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 0491385558

Email: [email protected]

Facility Contacts

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Eric MALBOS, MD

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

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2013-A01280-45 ID-RCB

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

CTRLSTRESS

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id