TY - JOUR
T1 - Old Fears Die Hard
T2 - Return of Public Speaking Fear in a Virtual Reality Procedure
AU - van Dis, E.A.M.
AU - Landkroon, E.
AU - Hagenaars, M.A.
AU - van der Does, F.H.S.
AU - Engelhard, I.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Florentine H. S. van der Does is now at Leiden University Medical Center. This study is registered on the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/udny4/ ). Declaration of interest: None. This study was supported by a Vici grant (453-15-005) from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded to Iris M. Engelhard. We thank Nique van Outvorst, Wouter van Haperen, and Evy van Weelden for recruiting and testing participants.
Funding Information:
Florentine H. S. van der Does is now at Leiden University Medical Center. This study is registered on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/udny4/). Declaration of interest: None. This study was supported by a Vici grant (453-15-005) from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded to Iris M. Engelhard. We thank Nique van Outvorst, Wouter van Haperen, and Evy van Weelden for recruiting and testing participants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Exposure-based therapy is an effective treatment for social anxiety, but some patients relapse. We used a novel virtual reality procedure to examine spontaneous recovery (i.e., a return of fear over time) and fear renewal (i.e., the return of fear after a context switch) in individuals with fear of public speaking. On Day 1, 32 participants received exposure training before a virtual audience. On Day 8, participants completed a spontaneous recovery phase, followed by a fear renewal test, in which they gave a presentation in front of a new (context switch) or the same audience (no context switch). After exposure, participants exhibited a lower heart rate, subjective distress, negative valence, and arousal. One week later, participants showed spontaneous recovery of heart rate, and the context switch group showed renewal of subjective distress, negative valence, and arousal. Future studies can use this procedure to test interventions aimed at improving long-term exposure effects in individuals with public speaking fear.
AB - Exposure-based therapy is an effective treatment for social anxiety, but some patients relapse. We used a novel virtual reality procedure to examine spontaneous recovery (i.e., a return of fear over time) and fear renewal (i.e., the return of fear after a context switch) in individuals with fear of public speaking. On Day 1, 32 participants received exposure training before a virtual audience. On Day 8, participants completed a spontaneous recovery phase, followed by a fear renewal test, in which they gave a presentation in front of a new (context switch) or the same audience (no context switch). After exposure, participants exhibited a lower heart rate, subjective distress, negative valence, and arousal. One week later, participants showed spontaneous recovery of heart rate, and the context switch group showed renewal of subjective distress, negative valence, and arousal. Future studies can use this procedure to test interventions aimed at improving long-term exposure effects in individuals with public speaking fear.
KW - fear renewal
KW - public speaking anxiety
KW - return of fear
KW - virtual reality exposure
U2 - 10.1016/j.beth.2021.01.005
DO - 10.1016/j.beth.2021.01.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 34452672
AN - SCOPUS:85104105947
SN - 0005-7894
VL - 52
SP - 1188
EP - 1197
JO - Behavior Therapy
JF - Behavior Therapy
IS - 5
ER -