Virtual reality exposure therapy for the treatment of fear of flying: a controlled investigation.
Forty-five participants who refused to fly during a screening test and who also met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for specific phobia, agoraphobia, or panic disorder with agoraphobia were randomly assigned to 5 sessions of either virtual reality exposure (VRE) or attention-placebo group treatment (GT). At posttreatment, 65% of VRE participants and 57% of GT participants flew during a test flight. Both groups showed significant improvement following treatment on standardized self-report measures of flight anxiety, with a better outcome for the VRE group on 4 of 5 of these measures. At 6-month follow-up, however, most group differences had disappeared; VRE resulted in a better outcome on only 1 of 5 standardized flight anxiety measures.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D000401:Aircraft; D003887:Desensitization, Psychologic / Q000379:methods*; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D014195:Travel / Q000523:psychology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface