Virtual reality exposure therapy in flight anxiety: A quantitative meta-analysis

BackgroundFlight anxiety and the fear-related avoidance draw serious personal and financial negative consequences. Although classical exposure techniques for flight anxiety are widely used, they involve significant limits. Efforts to develop the benefits and access to evidence-based psychotherapies have led to a new method of delivering exposure technique, namely virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET). Until now, there has been no meta-analysis which assumed as a primary objective the analysis of VRET effectiveness in flight anxiety. MethodsThe present meta-analysis aimed to investigate the efficacy of VRET interventions for flight anxiety compared to various control conditions, at post-test and follow-up. We conducted a quantitative review of 11 randomized studies, we examined potential moderators of the efficacy of interventions and we investigated the presence and the degree of publication bias. ResultsResults pointed out significant overall efficiency of VRET in flight anxiety at post-test and follow-up. Analysis highlighted the superiority of VRET vs. control conditions at post-test and follow-up and the superiority of VRET vs. classical evidence-based interventions at post-test and follow-up. Results revealed similar efficacy between VRET and exposure based interventions at post-test, and showed better treatment gains over time when using VRET vs. exposure based interventions. Moderation analyses revealed that low quality trials, with smaller and younger samples led to a larger effect size of VRET for flight anxiety. Also, outcome types, the number of exposure sessions and follow-up intervals were significant moderators of the efficiency of VRET in this disorder. ConclusionsThe present meta-analysis supports the efficiency of VRET in flight anxiety and encourages the use of this type of exposure both in clinical practice and research field. The effectiveness of VRET in flight anxiety was examined.Findings provide arguments for the use of VRET for treating flight anxiety.Quality trials, sample size, and number of exposures were significant moderators.

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