The purpose of this study is to examine a web-based training program for treating emotional problems in people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
This is a pilot study to examine how subjects with TBI feel about the virtual reality program as a treatment and to assess the effectiveness of the virtual reality program at increasing subjects' awareness and understanding of emotions.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
17
Total of 8 therapy sessions with the Emotion Builder over approximately four (4) weeks (2 sessions a week)
Indiana University Health Facilities
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20)
This is a 20-item self-report questionnaire comprised of three sub-constructs (Difficulty Identifying feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings, Externally-oriented Thinking). The full scale range is 20-100 (higher scores indicate higher alexithymia). Subscales are summed to compute a total score Scores between 52 and 60 indicate moderate alexithymia; scores 61 and higher indicate high alexithymia.
Time frame: Week 6
Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS)
The LEAS is comprised of ten hypothetical scenarios that are three or four sentences in length. Participants must respond how they think they would feel and how another person would feel in response to the hypothetical scenario. The more discrete emotions (e.g., bad vs sad) receive higher points, as well as blended emotions (e.g. sad and angry). There are 10 items on this measure. The minimum score for each item is 0 and the max score for each item is 5. The item scores are summed to calculate a total score. Thus, the total scores range from 0-50; 0=lowest awareness and 50=highest awareness. A computerized scoring system and parallel forms were used.
Time frame: Week 6
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) as an Assessment of Depression
The PHQ-9 is a self-report questionnaire designed to assess depression through nine questions that come directly from the DSM-IV signs and symptoms of major depression. The 9 items describe problems associated with depression, and participants must rate how often they have been bothered by the problems in the last 2 weeks on a 0-3 scale. The scores are summed for a total depression score, ranging from 0-27, which higher scores indicating greater depression.
Time frame: Week 6
State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
The STAI is a self-report measure of state and trait anxiety (20 items each). The trait anxiety subscale was the variable of interest for this study. Higher scores indicate more trait or state anxiety. Scores for each scale range from 20-80, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety. The raw scores were converted into T scores using age and gender norms provided by the authors for the STAI. A score of 50 represents the mean. A difference of 10 from the mean indicates a difference of one standard deviation. Higher T scores were still indicative of higher anxiety. We reported T scores for trait anxiety.
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Time frame: Week 6