1
|
Ramsey KA, Essoe JKY, Boyle N, Patrick AK, McGuire JF. Immersive Virtual Reality Exposures for the Treatment of Childhood Anxiety. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2023:10.1007/s10578-023-01628-4. [PMID: 37985621 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-023-01628-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/27/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
Exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has demonstrated efficacy and is recommended as a front-line treatment for childhood anxiety. Unfortunately, challenges exist that impact the effective implementation of exposure-based CBT in clinical practice. One of the primary challenges is the accessibility and availability of exposure stimuli (e.g., spiders, storms, heights) in CBT sessions. Immersive virtual reality (VR) has shown promise as a scalable and sustainable solution to address this clinical need, but remains largely untested in youth with anxiety disorders. Here, we examine the use of VR exposures in the treatment of youth with an anxiety disorder (i.e., specific phobias). We aimed to investigate: (1) the feasibility and clinical benefit of VR exposures; (2) whether VR exposures elicit changes in physiological arousal and/or subjective distress; and (3) whether habituation serves as a mechanism across physiological and subjective outcomes for VR exposures. Three youth and their parents completed a clinical evaluation, which was followed by a one session treatment (OST) with VR exposures. Afterward, youth and parents completed clinical assessments one-week and 1-month after treatment. Immersive VR exposures were found to be feasible and demonstrated clinical benefit for reducing anxiety severity. Additionally, VR exposures elicited changes in both physiological and subjective outcomes. Finally, physiological habituation to VR exposures was observed among participants who exhibited treatment response at follow-up. Collectively, these findings demonstrate preliminary evidence that VR exposures are feasible, tolerable, and show some therapeutic benefit for treating youth with anxiety.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kesley A Ramsey
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 550 N Broadway, Suite 206, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
| | - Joey Ka-Yee Essoe
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Maine at Farmington, Farmington, ME, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 550 N Broadway, Suite 206, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Nathan Boyle
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 550 N Broadway, Suite 206, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Ainsley K Patrick
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 550 N Broadway, Suite 206, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Joseph F McGuire
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 550 N Broadway, Suite 206, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Psychometric propierties of the Selective Mutism Questionnaire in Spanish children. Int J Clin Health Psychol 2021; 21:100249. [PMID: 33995539 PMCID: PMC8102401 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2021.100249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on selective mutism (SM) has been limited by the absence of standardised, psychometrically sound and cross-culturally valid assessment measures. Our aim is to present the results of a study of the factor structure and the reliability and concurrent validity of the scores of the Selective Mutism Questionnaire (SMQ), translated and adapted into Spanish. The SMQ contains 17 items about children's difficulty in speaking adequately in the family, school and social environment (out-of-school and out-of-family), each of which is answered according to a Likert scale with four response alternatives on speech frequency. Method: The study involved 110 pairs of parents of children diagnosed with SM whose ages ranged from 3 to 10 years. Results: The results show that the data from the Spanish sample fit the factorial model obtained by Bergman et al., and that data on its reliability and validity are robust and confirm that it as a good instrument for assessing SM in Spanish-speaking children. Conclusions: Therefore, we can affirm that the SMQ is a good instrument to assess SM in Spanish-speaking children.
Collapse
|
3
|
Etkin RG, Lebowitz ER, Silverman WK. Using Evaluative Criteria to Review Youth Anxiety Measures, Part II: Parent-Report. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 50:155-176. [PMID: 33739908 DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2021.1878898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
This Evidence Base Update of parent-report measures of youth anxiety symptoms is a companion piece to our update on youth self-report anxiety symptom measures (Etkin et al., 2021). We rate the psychometric properties of the parent-report measures as Adequate, Good, or Excellent using criteria developed by Hunsley and Mash (2008) and Youngstrom et al. (2017). Our review reveals that the evidence base for parent-report measures is considerably less developed compared with the evidence base for youth self-report measures. Nevertheless, several measures, the parent-report Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders, Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, and Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, were found to have Good to Excellent psychometric properties. We conclude our review with suggestions about which parent-report youth anxiety measures are best suited to perform different assessment functions and directions for additional research to expand and strengthen the evidence base.
Collapse
|
4
|
McGuire JF, Caporino NE, Palitz SA, Kendall PC, Albano AM, Ginsburg G, Birmaher B, Walkup JT, Piacentini J. Integrating evidence-based assessment into clinical practice for pediatric anxiety disorders. Depress Anxiety 2019; 36:744-752. [PMID: 31231969 PMCID: PMC6679780 DOI: 10.1002/da.22900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2019] [Revised: 03/11/2019] [Accepted: 04/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Although evidence-based assessments are the cornerstone of evidence-based treatments, it remains unknown whether incorporating evidence-based assessments into clinical practice enhances therapists' judgment of therapeutic improvement. This study examined whether the inclusion of youth- and parent-reported anxiety rating scales improved therapists' judgment of treatment response and remission compared to the judgment of treatment-masked independent evaluators (IEs) after (a) weekly/biweekly acute treatment and (b) monthly follow-up care. METHODS Four hundred thirty six youth received cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), medication, CBT with medication, or pill placebo through the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study. Participants and parents completed the following anxiety scales at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up: Screen for Childhood Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED) and Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC). IEs rated anxiety on the Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S) and Improvement (CGI-I) at posttreatment and follow-up. Therapists rated anxiety severity and improvement using scales that paralleled IE measures. RESULTS Fair-to-moderate agreement was found between therapists and IEs after acute treatment (κ = 0.38-0.48), with only slight-to-fair agreement found after follow-up care (κ = 0.07-0.33). Optimal algorithms for determining treatment response and remission included the combination of therapists' ratings and the parent-reported SCARED after acute (κ = 0.52-0.54) and follow-up care (κ = 0.43-0.48), with significant improvement in the precision of judgments after follow-up care (p < .02-.001). CONCLUSION Therapists are good at detecting treatment response and remission, but the inclusion of the parent-report SCARED optimized agreement with IE rating-especially when contact was less frequent. Findings suggest that utilizing parent-report measures of anxiety in clinical practice improves the precision of therapists' judgment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph F. McGuire
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
| | | | | | | | - Anne Marie Albano
- New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Medical Center
| | | | | | - John T. Walkup
- Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
| | - John Piacentini
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
| |
Collapse
|