Treatment of flying phobia using virtual reality: data from a 1‐year follow‐up using a multiple baseline design

The present work is a new contribution about the short- and long-term efficacy of virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy for the treatment of flying phobia (FP). We present data from pre-treatment, post-treatment and 1-year follow-up assessments in a sample of nine participants using a multiple baseline design. The treatment programme included a main therapeutic component: VR exposure (six sessions), accompanied by one session of education about anxiety, flying and exposure. The VR software developed by our team is described. Our software included, besides the virtual scenario used by most researchers, the plane, two new scenarios: the room and the airport, developed to work with the patients anticipatory anxiety. The results obtained, at post-treatment and 1 year after the completion of the treatment, support the efficacy of VR in the treatment of flying phobia. VR produced an activation of the fear and avoidance structures and a progressive decrement of fear, avoidance and belief in catastrophic thoughts. The scores in other specific self-report meaures of flying phobia confirm these findings. After the treatment, all participants flew. Our data support the efficacy of VR for the treatment of flying phobia achieved by other studies. Our contribution to this field is the use of VR exposure as the only therapeutic component, the long-term efficacy data, and the use of VR software for the treatment of anticipatory anxiety. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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