Online Versions of Single Session Virtual Reality (VR) Therapy and EMDR Flash Therapy on the Treatment of Flying Fear

Overview

The purpose of this experimental study is to explore effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based Virtual Reality Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy based Flash Technique compared to psychoeducation only group through developing one session online protocols. Follow up will be performed one month after the intervention. Accordingly, 89 people who applied voluntarily were divided into three groups randomly: 1. psychoeducation and Virtual reality therapy 2. Flash technique 3. psychoeducation-only. All participants were given a set of scales consisting: 1. The Clinical Global Impressions Scale 2. FAM (Flight Anxiety Modality Questionnaire), 3. FAS (Flight Anxiety Situations Questionnaire), and 4. Visual Analogue Flight Anxiety Scale (VAFAS), to assess the level of fear of flying before and one month after the treatment. This work was supported by the Research Fund of Ibn Haldun University. Project Name: Online Single Session Virtual Reality Therapy Programme for Fear of Flying. Project Number: 2238.

There are several therapy methods that can help individuals to overcome their flying phobia. Although traditional fear of flying exposure approaches is extensively employed, they have substantial limitations. Classical in vivo exposure for flying is not common because it is very expensive and very hard to adapt for every flight condition. Whereas VRET can give uniquely tailored exposure scenarios like air turbulence or weather conditions, in vivo exposure is harder to deliver since the therapist has little control over the scenario (Rothbaum et al., 2006). In the therapy of specific phobias, virtual reality therapy has been the most widely employed and has garnered the most empirical attention (Price et al., 2008). While cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the mainstream in the flight phobia treatment, empirical research on different psychotherapy strategies is similarly useful in the treatment of flight phobia (Triscari et al., 2015). Specific phobia studies on the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy indicated that EMDR therapy can provide important developments within a restricted variety of sessions (De Jongh et al., 1999). The Flash technique is a new individual or group intervention technique of EMDR that aims to reduce distress and suffering related to traumatic memories quickly (Wong, 2019). The purpose of this experimental study is to explore the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based Virtual Reality Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy based Flash Technique compared to Psychoeducation only groups through developing one-session protocols. Hypothesis 1. Is VRET-O more effective than the psychoeducation-only group for reducing participants' anxiety and avoidance behavior for fear of flying? 2. Is FLASH-O more effective than the psychoeducation-only group for reducing participants' anxiety and avoidance behaviour for fear of flying? 3. Is there any significantly meaningful decrease in post-test scores of participants' anxiety and avoidance behaviour for fear of flying when compared to the pretest scores? Participants were blinded to which group they would be in when they started the study via the Google form link. Randomization was performed by two independent investigators according to the order of application. Randomization was performed according to the order of the list in which the participants signed the consent form. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups according to the computer-generated number sequence in a 1:1:1 ratio from https://www.randomizer.org/. both study investigators and participants were blinded to the group to which they were assigned. After randomization, each participant was informed in detail about the treatment and waiting process.