document: The treatment of fear of flying : a controlled study of imaginal and virtual reality graded exposure therapy The goal of this study was to determine if virtual reality graded exposure therapy -LRB- VRGET -RRB- was equally efficacious , more efficacious , or less efficacious , than imaginal exposure therapy in the treatment of fear of flying . Thirty participants -LRB- Age = 39.8 + or-9 .7 -RRB- with confirmed DSM-IV diagnosis of specific phobia fear of flying were randomly assigned to one of three groups : VRGET with no physiological feedback -LRB- VRGETno -RRB- , VRGET with physiological feedback -LRB- VRGETpm -RRB- , or systematic desensitization with imaginal exposure therapy -LRB- IET -RRB- . Eight sessions were conducted once a week . During each session , physiology was measured to give an objective measurement of improvement over the course of exposure therapy . In addition , self-report questionnaires , subjective ratings of anxiety -LRB- SUDs -RRB- , and behavioral observations -LRB- included here as flying behavior before beginning treatment and at a three-month posttreatment followup -RRB- were included . In the analysis of results , the Chi-square test of behavioral observations based on a three-month posttreatment followup revealed a statistically significant difference in flying behavior between the groups -LSB- chi / sup 2 / -LRB- 4 -RRB- = 19.41 , p < 0.001 -RSB- . Only one participant -LRB- 10 % -RRB- who received IET , eight of the ten participants -LRB- 80 % -RRB- who received VRGETno , and ten out of the ten participants -LRB- 100 % -RRB- who received VRGETpm reported an ability to fly without medication or alcohol at three-month followup . Although this study included small sample sizes for the three groups , the results showed VRGET was more effective than IET in the treatment of flying . It also suggests that physiological feedback may add to the efficacy of VR treatment
doc_bio_tags: O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I I I O O O O O O O O O B I I I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B I I I O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O
extractive_keyphrases: virtual reality graded exposure therapy imaginal exposure therapy phobia physiological feedback physiology questionnaires subjective ratings of anxiety behavioral observations
abstractive_keyphrases: flying fear chi-square test patient treatment