Providing Psychological and Emotional Support After Perinatal Loss: A Virtual Reality-Based Intervention

Universite du Quebec en Outaouais40 enrolled

Overview

The loss of an infant during the perinatal period has been recognized as a complex and potentially traumatic life event and can have a significant impact on women's mental health. However, often times, psychological aftercare is typically not offered, and manualized interventions are rarely used in clinical care practice and have seldom been evaluated. In recent years, a growing number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) interventions to facilitate the expression and coping with emotions linked to a traumatic event. The objective of the proposed paper is to present the protocol of a randomized control trial aimed to assess a novel VR-based intervention for mothers who experienced a perinatal loss. The investigators hypothesize that the VR-based intervention group will show significantly reduced symptoms related to grief, postnatal depression and general psychopathology after treatment relative to a treatment-as-usual (TAU) group. With the present study the investigators propose to answer to the unquestionable need for interventions addressed to ameliorate the emotional effects in women who experienced perinatal loss, by exploiting also the therapeutic opportunities offered by a new technology as VR.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Grief Perinatal

Interventions

VROTHER

The proposed intervention will consist in three weekly sessions of 2h focused, respectively, on: (1) gathering information about the loss and psychoeducation about perinatal grief, and introduction to the virtual environment; (2) through the use of the virtual environment, women will be assisted in the elaboration and acceptation of loss; (3) recreate, using the features of the virtual environment (i.e., a series of different virtual landscapes and symbolic elements personalized to each participant as personal pictures, sounds or videos) a new and positive metaphor representing the woman's future life.

TAUOTHER

The TAU condition is a homogenous standard program proposed by the CERIF at UQO based on group counseling offered to women and men who experienced a perinatal loss.

Eligibility

Sex: FEMALEMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Mothers who had recently experienced a perinatal death, including: having lost a child during pregnancy because of miscarriage (i.e., embryo or fetus death prior the 28th week of gestation); termination due to medical indications; stillbirth (i.e., fetus death after 28 completed weeks of gestation); or neonatal death (i.e., infant death within the first 7 days of life). * Women who have experienced perinatal death while pregnant within no more than 1 year before the enrollment will be invited to participate to the study. Exclusion Criteria: * Significant vision impairments despite wearing corrective glasses or lenses. * Presence of a severe and disabling diagnosed mental disorder which requires immediate treatment. * Being under psychological treatment.