Social Anxiety Virtual Reality Study

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This project aims to validate a virtual reality paradigm that assesses maladaptive avoidance behavior in social anxiety disorder. It also aims to generate a significant scientific advance by testing the hypothesis that maladaptive avoidance maintains anxiety through disruptions in safety learning.

Detailed Description
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Although occasional mild social anxiety is a common human experience, social anxiety disorder has a devastating impact on patients' lives, leaving them vulnerable to medical, psychiatric, and socioeconomic complications. A key feature of social anxiety disorder is avoidance of social and/or performance situations in which judgment and evaluation from others might occur. Reducing avoidance is therefore an important treatment goal. Despite the importance of avoidance, however, it is very difficult to assess a patient's tendency to avoid. Many prior assessments of avoidance measure adaptive (i.e., helpful) avoidance, in which an individual learns to avoid a truly noxious stimulus. However, anxiety disorders are characterized by maladaptive avoidance, in which a relatively safe stimulus is avoided resulting in interference with the individual's goals. In this study, the first aim is to validate a virtual reality paradigm to measure maladaptive avoidance behavior in adults with social anxiety disorder. The second aim is to test whether maladaptive avoidance behavior relates to safety learning (measured by a fear extinction task).

Official Title
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Maladaptive Avoidance and Fear Conditioning in Social Anxiety Disorder

Conditions
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Social Anxiety Disorder

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: No intervention


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: age 18+ primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder fluent spoken and written English able to provide informed consent Exclusion Criteria: history of manic episode, hypomanic episode, or psychosis moderate or severe substance use disorder in the past 12 months current major depressive episode greater than moderate severity (PHQ-9 score >14) high risk for suicide (>8 on the MINI Suicidality section and/or clinician judgment that immediate medical attention is necessary) general medical condition or impediment to vision, hearing, or motor function likely to interfere with assessments benzodiazepine use in the past 2 weeks cannabis use for anxiety management in the past 2 weeks

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Social Anxiety Disorder<br>A group of adults with social anxiety disorder will be recruited for a psychological/behavioral research study. | Other: No intervention<br>* There will be no intervention in this study. Adults with social anxiety disorder will complete research assessments related to fear and safety learning.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Maladaptive Avoidance Behavior | Latency (in milliseconds) to enter the quadrant of the avoidance task containing the image from the fear learning task | Baseline | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Maladaptive Avoidance Behavior (alternate measure) | Amount of time (in milliseconds) spent in the quadrant of the avoidance task containing the image from the fear learning task | Baseline | 
| Maladaptive Avoidance Behavior (2nd alternate measure) | Amount of time (in milliseconds) with center of gaze on the image from the fear learning task | Baseline |