NCT06301516

Impact VR: An Emotion Recognition and Regulation Training Program for Youth With CD

Impact Virtual Reality: An Emotion Recognition and Regulation Training Program for Youth With Conduct Disorder

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 110 (actual)
• Sponsor: Virginia Commonwealth University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 10 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Conduct disorder (CD) is one of the most prevalent childhood psychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, there are limited treatments available for CD. The present study aims to test an innovative virtual reality intervention called Impact VR for symptom reduction in a sample of 60 youth with CD.

Detailed description

Within the CD diagnosis, a subset of youth (12-46%) display callous-unemotional (CU) traits (termed "limited prosocial emotions"). CU traits denote additional symptoms including a lack of remorse/guilt, a callous lack of empathy, shallow affect, and/or lack of concern about performance. Although both CD and CU traits are inextricably linked to poor outcomes for youth, there remains a scarcity of targeted interventions for CD and CU traits. One of the most significant challenges for treatment is that youth with CD are often perceived by providers as treatment-resistant and treatment disrupters. This leads to poor treatment retention and further isolation from treatment opportunities. Further, existing interventions that target antisocial behaviors more generally are costly because they require 24/7 behavioral management therapies. Impact VR is a psychoeducational intervention for improving emotion recognition and regulation, using immersive gameplay and storylines that are relevant to youth. Impact VR uses evidence-based cognitive and dialectical behavioral approaches to improve emotion regulation. At the center of Impact VR is an individualized training program that teaches youth to effectively identify emotional expressions in others.

Conditions

• Conduct Disorder
• Conduct Disorders in Children
• Conduct Disorders in Adolescence
• Callous-Unemotional Traits

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Virtual Reality	VR: The goal of the VR intervention is to provide youth an immersive, engaging, and therapeutic environment to reduce CD and CU traits
OTHER	Comparative Control	Complete a one-time PowerPoint presentation that provides an overview of emotion expressions and instructions on how to recognize emotions in others.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-02-16
• Primary completion: 2024-09-26
• Completion: 2024-09-26
• First posted: 2024-03-08
• Last updated: 2025-02-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States