Efficacy of a Gamified Augmented Reality Exposure-based Application in Subjects With Fear of Spiders

NCT ID: NCT04162509

Last Updated: 2019-12-20

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

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

60 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-10-07

Study Completion Date

2019-12-04

Brief Summary

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Investigation of the efficacy of a gamified augmented reality exposure app in individual with fear of spiders.

Detailed Description

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The study will be conducted as a randomized controlled between subject trial. The study consists of two visits and a home training for one group. 60 participants between 18 and 40 years with clinical or subclinical fear of spiders will take part in the study.

All assessments of outcome will be conducted on one visit for each participant, including an in vivo BAT. The experimental group will participate in a home training with the app, spanning over two weeks (6x30-minutes sessions), whereas the control group will not receive any treatment (untreated comparison group).

Six weeks after the first visit all participants undergo the assessments of outcome, including a second in vivo BAT. The BAT will take place 4 weeks after completion of the home training. This design allows a direct comparison and therefore an estimation of the efficacy of the gamified AR exposure therapy.

Conditions

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Fear of Spiders

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Randomized controlled single-blind study design
Primary Study Purpose

OTHER

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors
Participants will be randomly (matched by clinical relevance of fear of spiders and sex) allocated to treatment groups (experimental group, control group). The experimenter evaluating the primary outcome will be blinded (unaware of group assignment of participants, single-blind).

Study Groups

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Exposure

The experimental intervention in the experimental group consists of six 30-minutes AR exposures as home training (total duration in AR: 3 hours) within two weeks.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

AR app

Intervention Type OTHER

Participants will be exposed to nine different AR spider scenarios with a pre-defined length of 2 minutes for each level. Each level starts with a surface scan of the environment and the placement of the AR spider model(s) by tapping on the display. Through small text pop-ups the user is instructed to perform different tasks (e.g. looking at the spider model, approaching it, holding the hand under the model). They proceed to further levels according to a predefined exposure scheme based on SUDS for fear (scale 0=no fear to 10=maximum fear) and disgust (scale 0=no disgust to 10=maximum disgust) and the assurance of the task completed (yes/no). Users will repeat each level until their SUDS are 4 or below and have completed the task. Each exposure session is limited to approx. 30 minutes (controlled by the participants) irrespective of achieved level.

Control

The control group will not receive any active treatment (untreated comparison group).

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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AR app

Participants will be exposed to nine different AR spider scenarios with a pre-defined length of 2 minutes for each level. Each level starts with a surface scan of the environment and the placement of the AR spider model(s) by tapping on the display. Through small text pop-ups the user is instructed to perform different tasks (e.g. looking at the spider model, approaching it, holding the hand under the model). They proceed to further levels according to a predefined exposure scheme based on SUDS for fear (scale 0=no fear to 10=maximum fear) and disgust (scale 0=no disgust to 10=maximum disgust) and the assurance of the task completed (yes/no). Users will repeat each level until their SUDS are 4 or below and have completed the task. Each exposure session is limited to approx. 30 minutes (controlled by the participants) irrespective of achieved level.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Fear of spiders
* BAT score before exposure between 1-8
* Physically healthy
* Fluent in German

Exclusion Criteria

* BDI-II sumscore \>=20 and/or item 9 \>=1
* Concurrent psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy
* Previous exposure-based therapy for spider phobia
* Parallel participation in another study
* Chronic medication intake (except oral contraceptives)
* Medication intake before visits (less than 24h)
* Alcohol intake before visits (less than 12 h)
* Cannabis or other psychoactive substances (including benzodiazepines) intake before visits (less than 5 days)
* For women: Current pregnancy
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

40 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Swiss National Science Foundation

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Prof. Dominique de Quervain, MD

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Prof. Dominique de Quervain, MD

Director Division of Cognitive Neuroscience

Responsibility Role SPONSOR_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Dominique de Quervain, Prof.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Basel

Locations

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University of Basel

Basel, Canton of Basel-City, Switzerland

Site Status

Countries

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Switzerland

Other Identifiers

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2018-00432

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id