title: Virtual reality in the treatment of spider phobia: a controlled study.
abstract: This study explored whether virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy was effective in the treatment of spider phobia. We compared a treatment condition vs. a waiting list condition in a between group design with 23 participants. Participants in the VR treatment group received an average of four one-hour exposure therapy sessions. VR exposure was effective in treating spider phobia compared to a control condition as measured with a Fear of Spiders questionnaire, a Behavioural Avoidance Test (BAT), and severity ratings made by the clinician and an independent assessor. Eighty-three percent of patients in the VR treatment group showed clinically significant improvement compared with 0% in the waiting list group, and no patients dropped out. This study shows that VR exposure can be effective in the treatment of phobias.
authors.affiliation: Departamento Psicologia Basica Clinica y Psicobiologia, Universidad Jaume I, Castellon, Spain. azucena@psb.uji.es
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcia-Palacios
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carlin
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Furness
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Botella
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013112:Spiders; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014584:User-Computer Interface