I want to see the audience, I want to hear the audience, I want to speak to the audience.

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Every phobic of public speaking needs to send a thank you to Helene S. Wallach. Her study of the social phobia of public speaking anxiety has produced some interesting results, possibly providing another cure for the people who can’t help but imagine themselves in their underwear while talking to a large crowd. Her study examines the effectiveness of Virtual reality CBT (VRCBT). Compared to cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), the treatment of choice for the phobia, VRCBT has a higher percentage of therapist control, which eliminates certain effects that hinder some people who use CBT treatment. Three control groups were created that consisted of people suffering from public speaking anxiety and were followed for a year to show that VRCBT was just as efficient as CBT.The results indicate that both CBT and VRCBT effectively treat public speaking anxiety.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, social phobia affects 13% of the population. Public speaking anxiety (PSA) is the most common disorder classified under social phobia, affecting 40% of all social phobia patients. Public speaking anxiety is effective at causing disturbances in a person’s life and often leads people to resort to drugs to try to overcome the disorder. However, when receiving professional help, cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is the most common treatment. CBT is usually conducted in a natural setting, which is known as in vivo or by imagination, which is known as in vitro. In vivo is the superior choice but it has some drawbacks. It is more costly and time consuming and it’s hard to control the environment. There is possibility that the patient can have contact with a person they know, which would cause negative results. In vitro exposure has a downside in that its hard for some to effectively use their imagination or some become overwhelmed with an abundance of images. Because of these problems associated with in vivo and in vitro, CBT should not be the treatment of choice according to Wallach. Virtual reality exposure (VR), therefore, is an effective alternative.

VR therapy is defined as a situation in which a computer produces sensory information instead of a natural setting. Virtual reality CBT has been employed for phobias and has advantages over in vitro and in vivo therapy. Compared to in vivo exposure, VR therapy protects a client’s persona, increases the therapist’s control of the surrounding environment, and saves time and money. Compared to in vitro exposure, VR therapy is more effective for patients that have a hard time imagining or are easily overwhelmed with images. Thus, Wallach and her team, set out to demonstrate that VRCBT was just as effective as CBT by conducting a study consisting of three control groups with people who suffer from public speaking anxiety.

Two of the groups received treatment; one received CBT treatment and another received VRCBT treatment. The other group was labeled WLC and did not receive treatment. The results garnered were that the groups that received treatment of CBT and VRCBT had positive results in effectively helping cure a person who suffers from public speaking anxiety compared to the group that received no treatment.

Wallach and her team then compared the results of the two groups that received treatment and deduced that both are equally effective treatments and that VRCBT should also be a treatment of choice when trying to cure public speaking anxiety. These results were followed for a year to test durability to determine efficiency post-treatment. The CBT and VRCBT results were maintained for a year and have proven to be a durable cure.

http://bmo.sagepub.com/content/36/2/235
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