Evaluation
“All the information contained in this section is for guidance only. Psious environments are therapy supporting tools that must be used by the healthcare professional within an evaluation and intervention process designed according to the characteristics and needs of the user.
Also remember that you have the General Clinical Guide in which you have more information on how to adapt psychological intervention techniques (exposure, systematic desensitization, cognitive restructuring, chip economy…) to Psious environments.”
Generalized Anxiety assessment
Evaluation Objectives
- Evaluate the presence and comorbidity of other anxiety and emotional disorders.
- Evaluate the anxiety parameters: intensity, frequency, characteristics…
- Measure the presence of distorted thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs.
Some useful instruments for Generalized Anxiety
Taking the evaluation objectives into account let’s proceed onto listing some tools and devices that can be useful in gathering relevant information on the user characteristics. Always remember good goal setting, patient characterization and intervention planning are important in effective and efficient therapies, as that of your patients’ satisfaction. The following are the articles you will find in the bibliography where you can refer to the proposed tool characterization:
- Structured interview: ADIS-IV
- Behavioral approach test/behavior avoidance (in vivo or with virtual reality)
- Assessing thoughts while running virtual environments
SELF-REPORTS
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale; (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006).
- Questionnaire sur le Inquiétude et l’Anxiété; Worry and Anxiety Questionnaire, (WAQ; Dugas et al., 2001).
- Penn State Worry Questionnaire, (PSWQ; Meyer et al., 1990).
- Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Children, (PSWQ-C; Chorpita et al., 1997).
- Worry Domains Questionnaire, WDQ; (Tallis et al., 1994)
A proposal for a treatment protocol that includes the Psious tool is described below. It is recommended to combine virtual reality with traditional techniques, such as relaxation or cognitive restructuring.