Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, attention bias and virtual reality

Abstract

This thesis comprises a Systematic Review of the Acceptability and Drop-Out Rates of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and an empirical study on The Role of Pre-Existing Assumptions and Cognitive Flexibility in the Development of Post-Trauma Cognitive Processes – An Analogue Study.

The Systematic Review of 28 studies of varying study designs comprised a majority of military populations, found Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to be an acceptable and tolerable treatment method to most. The weighted mean of drop-out from these studies at 13.03% is comparatively slightly lower than reports of attrition in traditional PTSD therapies.

The empirical study sought to provide experimental evidence to Ehlers and Clark's (2000) model of PTSD, investigating attentional biases using eye-tracking equipment following exposure to an analogue trauma film paradigm using Virtual Reality, alongside measures of cognitive processing, pre-existing assumptions, cognitive flexibility, anxiety, and memory. Findings included significantly greater gazing at trauma related stimuli following exposure, significantly greater data-driven processing immediately following exposure, and greater conceptually-driven processing at 5-10 day follow-up. Pre-existing beliefs were a significant predictor of data-driven processing and trait anxiety, and cognitive flexibility significantly predicted state anxiety. No predictors were found for attentional bias or memory recall.

Thesis is embargoed until 31 December 2024.