Social anxiety and virtual reality

The fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), replaces the old term of social phobia with Social Anxiety Disorder. This modification represents a change in the conceptualization of the disorder, in which it is understood that the condition exists in a variety of social settings.
Virtual Reality (VR) is a beneficial tool for the treatment of Social Phobia, as it exposes the patient to social interactions, cognitive restructuring, social skills training and allows to train the patient on relaxation techniques. Moreover, the virtual exposure can be applied in an anxiogenic or unfavorable situation (seated, noisy, mid-conversation, etc), which is useful to design the exposure to the patient’s needs.

References

• García-López, L. J., Olivares, J., Hidalgo, M. D., Beidel, D. C., & Turner, S. M. (2001). Psychometric properties of the social phobia and anxiety inventory, the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, and the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale in an adolescent Spanish-speaking sample. Journal of Psychopathology and behavioral assessment, 23(1), 51-59.

• Gebara, C., Barros-Neto, T., Gertsenchstein, L., Lotufo-Neto, F. (2015). Virtual reality exposure using three-dimensional images for the treatment of social phobia. 

• Hartanto, D., Kampmann, I.L., Morina, N., Emmelkamp, P.G., Neerincx, M.A. y Brinkman, W. (2014). Controlling social stress in virtual reality environments. PLos ONE, 9(3), 1-17-. doi: 10.1371/journal. pone.0092804

• Herbelin, B., Vexo, F. y Thalmann, D. (2002). Sense of presence in virtual reality exposure therapy. Virtual Reality Laboratory, Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Recuperado de: http://citeseerx.ist.psu. edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.9.9590&rep=rep1&type=pdf

• Klinger, E., Bouchard, S., Légeron, P., Roy, S., Lauer, F., Chemin, I. y Nugues, P. (2005). Virtual Reality Therapy versus Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Social Phobia: A preliminary controlled study. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8(1):76-88. DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2005.8.76 

• McNeil, D.W. y Randall, C.L. (2014). Conceptualizing and describing Social Anxiety and its disorders. En S.G. Hofmann y P.M. DiBartolo (Eds.), Social Anxiety. Clinical, developmental, and social perspectives (pp. 3-21). Londres: Elsevier.

• Morrison, J. (2015). DSM-5: Guía para el diagnóstico clínico. México, D.F.: El Manual Moderno

• Nichols, A. L., & Webster, G. D. (2015). Designing a brief measure of social anxiety: Psychometric support for a three-item version of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS-3). Personality and Individual Differences, 79, 110-115.