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.”
Goals of evaluation
- To evaluate the presence and comorbidity of other emotional disorders, especially panic disorder, anxiety disorders and other phobias.
- Evaluate component-related anxiety: intensity, fear characteristics…
- Define stimulating configurations feared by the patient and the degree of it. Elaboration Hierarchy of Exposure.
- Evaluate the presence of distorted thoughts.
Some useful tools for evaluating acrophobia
In consideration to the evaluation objectives, we will provide a list of some tools that can be useful to obtain relevant information and characteristics about your patient. Remember that a good definition of objectives, characterization of the patient and planning of the intervention are important for the efficiency and efficacy of the therapy, as well as for satisfaction of your patients. In the bibliography, you will find articles to review the characteristics of the instruments proposed below. A combination of the following tools will be used for a complete evaluation of the problem.
- Open or semi-structured interview.
- Structured interview: Interview for the Anxiety disorders According to DSM-IV (ADIS-IV)
- Behavioral approach Test in vivo and/or through virtual reality
Auto – reports
- Acrophobia Questionnaire (Cohen, Behaviour Therapy, IS, 17-23, 1977).
- Fear Questionnaire (FSS-III) (Wolpe J. y Lang P.J., 1964 published by Landy & Gaupp, 1971).
- Psious Auto-Reports for the elaboration of the hierarchy