NCT05830435

Trier Social Stress Test in Virtual Reality

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 55 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University Medical Center Groningen · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Background The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a valid and gold standard way for inducing psychosocial stress and is widely used in research and diagnostics. One of the downsides of the TSST is the difficulty to maintain the same experimental conditions repeatedly. A TSST in virtual reality (TSST-VR) is constant and requires far less time and personnel. Our TSST-VR version consist of three stress levels (no stress, moderate stress, high stress), a novelty in this field. Aim The aim is to investigate whether there is a statistically significantly greater increase directly after the TSST-VR in psychological and physiological stress parameters in the moderate and high stress levels compared to the no stress condition (control). Method A randomized controlled trial is conducted in healthy adults, with the three stress levels as conditions. Cortisol and questionnaires on anxiety and physical arousal are measured at baseline, during and after the TSST. Heart rate is measured continuously and adverse events are monitored.

Conditions

• Stress, Psychological
• Stress, Physiological

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Trier social stress test	TSST-VR-friendly: The assistant behind the desk asks the participant to prepare a small talk on their favourite holiday within 5 minutes. Then the participant is asked to tell about his holiday for 5 minutes. Then the participant is asked to do a simple math task: adding the number 5 to 0 for 5 minutes. The research assistant gives friendly gestures and verbal encouragements. TSST-VR-neutral: The assistant asks the participant to prepare a speech for a job interview in the upcoming 5 minutes. Then the participant is asked to deliver the speech for 5 minutes in front of two panelists and camera. Then the participant is asked to do a math task, subtracting the number 13 from 1022 for 5 minutes. During the performance the two panellist have neutral gestures and give neutral verbal instructions. TSST-VR unfriendly: The procedure of the TSST-VR unfriendly is the same as the neutral TSST-VR, with the addition that the two panellist give unfriendly gestures such as tapping on the table.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-11-25
• Primary completion: 2023-08-01
• Completion: 2023-12-31
• First posted: 2023-04-26
• Last updated: 2023-04-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Netherlands