NCT04656977

Providing Psychological and Emotional Support After Perinatal Loss: A Virtual Reality-Based Intervention

Évaluer l'efficacité d'Une Intervention en réalité Virtuelle Sur le Bien-être Des Femmes Ayant vécu un décès périnatal : un Essai contrôlé randomisé

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Universite du Quebec en Outaouais · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The loss of an infant during the perinatal period has been recognized as a complex and potentially traumatic life event and can have a significant impact on women's mental health. However, often times, psychological aftercare is typically not offered, and manualized interventions are rarely used in clinical care practice and have seldom been evaluated. In recent years, a growing number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) interventions to facilitate the expression and coping with emotions linked to a traumatic event. The objective of the proposed paper is to present the protocol of a randomized control trial aimed to assess a novel VR-based intervention for mothers who experienced a perinatal loss. The investigators hypothesize that the VR-based intervention group will show significantly reduced symptoms related to grief, postnatal depression and general psychopathology after treatment relative to a treatment-as-usual (TAU) group. With the present study the investigators propose to answer to the unquestionable need for interventions addressed to ameliorate the emotional effects in women who experienced perinatal loss, by exploiting also the therapeutic opportunities offered by a new technology as VR.

Conditions

• Grief
• Perinatal

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	VR	The proposed intervention will consist in three weekly sessions of 2h focused, respectively, on: (1) gathering information about the loss and psychoeducation about perinatal grief, and introduction to the virtual environment; (2) through the use of the virtual environment, women will be assisted in the elaboration and acceptation of loss; (3) recreate, using the features of the virtual environment (i.e., a series of different virtual landscapes and symbolic elements personalized to each participant as personal pictures, sounds or videos) a new and positive metaphor representing the woman's future life.
OTHER	TAU	The TAU condition is a homogenous standard program proposed by the CERIF at UQO based on group counseling offered to women and men who experienced a perinatal loss.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-11-16
• Primary completion: 2022-06-01
• Completion: 2022-10-01
• First posted: 2020-12-07
• Last updated: 2020-12-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada