NCT02298478

Efficacy of an Internet-based Treatment for Flying Phobia: NO-FEAR Airlines

Efficacy of an Internet-based Treatment for Flying Phobia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 69 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universitat Jaume I · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a computer-aided self-help treatment for flying phobia with or without support by the therapist, compared to a waiting list control group. Secondary objectives: a) to explore two ways of delivering NO-FEAR Airlines, with or without therapist guidance and b) to study the patients' acceptability through expectations, preferences and satisfaction towards the online program. In this work, we present the study design. The principal hypothesis is that the two intervention groups will improve significantly compared to the waiting list control group.

Detailed description

One of the most prevalent phobias in our society is the fear of flying or flying phobia (FP). Surveys which identify clinically significant phobias estimate point prevalence at approximately 2.5% of the adult population. Around 10% of the general population do not fly due to intense fear, 25% of the population that fly experience intense distress during the flight and 20% of people depend on alcohol or tranquilizers to overcome the fear of flying. The most effective psychological technique for the treatment of phobias is in vivo exposure. Besides, not all patients benefit from in vivo exposure, given that an important amount of them do not accept the intervention or drop out (around 25%) when they are informed about the intervention procedure or they have problems to access to these therapies. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are pioneer applications that can improve treatment adherence and acceptance. Specifically, Computerized programs boasts remarkable advantages beyond strictly therapeutic and effectiveness-related ones in treating fear of flying: a reduction in direct therapeutic contact time, the possibility of standardizing treatment to the maximum, the low cost - which allows a greater extension - and, perhaps most importantly, access to patients who would not be very willing to subject themselves to live exposure (a real flight) with a steep exposure gradient. The application of cognitive-behavioural procedures such as exposure through interactive computer programs is especially recommended.

Conditions

• Flying Phobia

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	NO-FEAR Airlines	"NO-FEAR Airlines" is a computer program that allows people who are afraid to fly to be exposed to images and sounds related to their phobic fears on a standard personal computer. The treatment can be totally self-applied. "NO-FEAR Airlines" divides the flight process into six sequential stages: (1) flight preparation, (2) a series of activities immediately prior to flying on the day of the flight, (3) boarding and taking off, (4) the central part of the flight, (5) the airplane's descent, approach to the runway and landing, (6) sequence with images and auditory stimuli related to plane crashes.

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-09-01
• Primary completion: 2017-09-01
• Completion: 2017-10-01
• First posted: 2014-11-24
• Last updated: 2018-03-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain