Study of VR-Based Avatar Therapy Effects on Thinking and Social Skills in Adults with Psychosis and Auditory Hallucinations

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are investigating how cognitive, metacognitive, and social cognition factors affect patients with psychosis undergoing VR-based Avatar Therapy for auditory hallucinations. This study aims to understand how these variables and trauma history influence treatment outcomes, with assessments at screening, baseline, during intervention, and post-therapy. The goal is to develop more personalized therapeutic approaches for psychosis. The intervention includes 7 individual VR-based Avatar Therapy sessions over 12 weeks, using virtual reality technology to help patients interact with an avatar representing their main auditory hallucination. Alongside the therapy, participants are evaluated with tools measuring emotion recognition, attributional style, theory of mind, cognitive flexibility, and trauma history to explore their roles in treatment results. Participants will attend assessments at weeks 0, 12, 24, and after therapy completion at week 24. These include cognitive and metacognitive tests, social cognition evaluations, and trauma questionnaires. Researchers will monitor changes in emotion recognition, executive functioning, attributional style, theory of mind, metacognition, cognitive flexibility, global cognitive performance, and working memory throughout the study period.

Cognitive and Metacognitive Evaluation in VR-Based Avatar Therapy for Psychosis