Description Module

Description Module

The Description Module contains narrative descriptions of the clinical trial, including a brief summary and detailed description. These descriptions provide important information about the study's purpose, methodology, and key details in language accessible to both researchers and the general public.

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Description Module


Ignite Creation Date: 2025-12-25 @ 4:03 AM
Ignite Modification Date: 2025-12-25 @ 4:03 AM
NCT ID: NCT04467502
Brief Summary: Gambling disorder (GD) is recognized as an addictive disorder in the DSM-5. Craving is a core phenomenon in addiction that can lead to relapse in problem gambling for pathological gamblers. Exposure Therapy (ET) focuses on craving in addiction treatment. ET in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on classical conditioning that addresses the association between contextual cues and the craving response. ET helps the patient to reduce craving when faced with cues triggering craving. ET includes in vivo exposure and imaginal exposure. The literature recommends being as close as possible to the context of addiction to facilitate the extinction of craving but in vivo ET is complicated to perform. For GD, in outpatient consultation, bringing a patient to a casino presents obstacles (e.g., time, human and financial cost, agreement with casino for therapy). The study will be to assess the effectiveness of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) in a virtual gambling environment. Various trials show that VRET is no more or less effective than classical ET in CBT but has other advantages for motivation to treatment. This research aims to compare efficacy between CBT with VRET and CBT with imaginal exposure for treatment of GD in a multicenter, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority clinical trial.
Detailed Description: Main aim: Show, within patients seeking care for GD, that VRET integrated with CBT is non-inferior to imaginal ET integrated with CBT on GD symptom reduction at the end of 12 treatment sessions. Secondary objectives: 1. Show that VRET integrated with CBT is non-inferior to imaginal ET integrated with CBT on GD symptom reduction during the first 12 months post-treatment. 2. Compare the effect of the two therapeutic strategies on GD symptoms (measured by complementary assessments to that used in the main aim), at the end of treatment and during the first 12 months post-treatment. 3. Show the efficacy of VRET integrated with CBT compared to imaginal ET integrated with CBT on gambling behavior, craving, and gambling-related cognitions at the end of treatment and during the first 12 months post-treatment. 4. Show the efficacy of VRET integrated with CBT compared to imaginal ET integrated with CBT on the evolution of anxiety and depressive symptoms at the end of treatment and during the first 12 months post-treatment. 5. Compare the quality of the two therapeutic strategies at the end of treatment.
Study: NCT04467502
Study Brief:
Protocol Section: NCT04467502