Decrease Trauma-related Shame With Virtual Reality: The Effectiveness of SHINE-VR

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

6 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-02-03

Study Completion Date

2025-05-19

Brief Summary

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Suffering from PTSD in childhood can have detrimental formative consequences. Researchers have been eager to develop effective interventions and to enhance treatment motivation since the introduction of the diagnosis of PTSD in the DSM. With evolving understanding of the disorder, its definition and criteria have changed over the course of time. The most recent change involves the addition of the criterium D of negative affects or emotions in relation to PTSD, the feeling of shame amongst others. Individuals experiencing interpersonal trauma, such as sexual abuse, are at high-risk developing trauma-related shame, which in turn can impact the course and effectiveness of PTSD treatment. Shame-inducing situations are typically being avoided, and the feelings are not disclosed to peers and other people. Hence, acknowledging and sharing feelings of shame as well as practicing self-compassion have been proposed to reduce the impact of that negative self-conscious emotion. These aspects get partially tackled in evidence-based trauma therapies, however, there appears to be a need for a more specific trauma-related shame intervention in addition to existing treatments. Recent research has focused on developing such interventions for adults and has reported positive effects.

To our knowledge, there is no intervention specifically tackling trauma-related shame in adolescents. Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool for such an intervention. Findings suggest that including VR in a treatment results in high treatment satisfaction and that it is highly motivating for its users, which is a crucial component for treatment success.

The goal of this study is to test the effectiveness of a short-term VR shame intervention (SHINE-VR) for adolescents suffering from PTSD after having experienced sexual abuse. The primary objectives of this study to assess the effect of SHINE-VR on trauma-related shame, self-compassion, and PTSD symptom reduction, to investigate whether treatment motivation, an increase in self-compassion, and a decrease in trauma-related shame are associated with PTSD symptom reduction.

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Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Shame

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Single Case Experimental Design (ABC) with two different baseline lengths

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants

The participants are unaware of different baseline lengths

Study Groups

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SHINE-VR Baseline 1 week

Participants will receive SHINE-VR additionally to regular trauma treatment. The baseline phase starts after trauma processing, e.g. after module 6 of TF-CBT or processing of the traumatic event with EMDR.

This group has a one week baseline, 3 weeks intervention, and 2 week follow-up phase.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

SHINE-VR

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The SHINE-VR takes place after trauma processing, e.g. after module 6 of TF-CBT or processing of the traumatic event with EMDR, and is followed by the rest of the regular treatment. SHINE-VR consists of the following 3 VR sessions à 45min:

* Introduction: getting acquainted with VR, playing a VR game developed for the feasibility study (Krupljanin et al., in preparation), receiving psychoeducation about seeking help.
* Shame: virtual group therapy setting, psychoeducation about shame, virtual peers sharing thoughts of shame and their learnings/positive affirmations.
* Self-compassion: practicing self-compassion using an immersive perspective-changing task in VR.

SHINE-VR Baseline 2 weeks

Participants will receive SHINE-VR additionally to regular trauma treatment. The baseline phase starts after trauma processing, e.g. after module 6 of TF-CBT or processing of the traumatic event with EMDR.

This group has a two week baseline, 3 weeks intervention, and a 1 week follow-up phase.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

SHINE-VR

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The SHINE-VR takes place after trauma processing, e.g. after module 6 of TF-CBT or processing of the traumatic event with EMDR, and is followed by the rest of the regular treatment. SHINE-VR consists of the following 3 VR sessions à 45min:

* Introduction: getting acquainted with VR, playing a VR game developed for the feasibility study (Krupljanin et al., in preparation), receiving psychoeducation about seeking help.
* Shame: virtual group therapy setting, psychoeducation about shame, virtual peers sharing thoughts of shame and their learnings/positive affirmations.
* Self-compassion: practicing self-compassion using an immersive perspective-changing task in VR.

Interventions

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SHINE-VR

The SHINE-VR takes place after trauma processing, e.g. after module 6 of TF-CBT or processing of the traumatic event with EMDR, and is followed by the rest of the regular treatment. SHINE-VR consists of the following 3 VR sessions à 45min:

* Introduction: getting acquainted with VR, playing a VR game developed for the feasibility study (Krupljanin et al., in preparation), receiving psychoeducation about seeking help.
* Shame: virtual group therapy setting, psychoeducation about shame, virtual peers sharing thoughts of shame and their learnings/positive affirmations.
* Self-compassion: practicing self-compassion using an immersive perspective-changing task in VR.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Between 12 and 17 years old at inclusion
* Interpersonal trauma (sexual abuse); in case of multiple traumas the main trauma should be sexual abuse
* Indication for PTSD treatment
* Getting trauma treatment as usual
* Adequate command of the Dutch language