In this study, the Search Your Mind (S.Y.M., 心) project aimed to collect prospective digital phenotypic data centered on mood and anxiety symptoms across psychiatric disorders through a smartphone application (app) platform while using both centralized and decentralized research designs: the centralized research design is a hybrid of a general prospective observational study and a digital platform-based study, and it includes face-to-face research such as informed written consent, clinical evaluation, and blood sampling. It also includes digital phenotypic assessment through an application-based platform using wearable devices. Meanwhile, the decentralized research design is a non-face-to-face study in which anonymous participants agree to electronic informed consent forms on the app. It also exclusively uses an application-based platform to acquire individualized digital phenotypic data. We expect to collect clinical, biological, and digital phenotypic data centered on mood and anxiety symptoms, and we propose a possible model of centralized and decentralized research design.

BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by excessive fear of negative evaluation and humiliation in social interactions and situations. Virtual reality (VR) treatment is a promising intervention option for SAD. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to create a participatory and interactive VR intervention for SAD. Treatment progress, including the severity of symptoms and the cognitive and emotional aspects of SAD, was analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. METHODS In total, 32 individuals with SAD and 34 healthy control participants were enrolled in the study through advertisements for online bulletin boards at universities. A VR intervention was designed consisting of three stages (introduction, core, and finishing) and three difficulty levels (easy, medium, and hard) that could be selected by the participants. The core stage was the exposure intervention in which participants engaged in social situations. The effectiveness of treatment was assessed through Beck Anxiety inventory (BAI), State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Internalized Shame Scale (ISS), Post-Event Rumination Scale (PERS), Social Phobia Scale (SPS), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), Brief-Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE), and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). RESULTS In the SAD group, scores on the BAI (<i>F</i>=4.616, <i>P</i>=.009), STAI-Trait (<i>F</i>=4.670, <i>P</i>=.004), ISS (<i>F</i>=6.924, <i>P</i>=.001), PERS-negative (<i>F</i>=1.008, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), SPS (<i>F</i>=8.456, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), BFNE (<i>F</i>=6.117, <i>P</i>=.004), KSAD (<i>F</i>=13.259, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), and LSAS (<i>F</i>=4.103, <i>P</i>=.009) significantly improved over the treatment process. Compared with the healthy control group before treatment, the SAD group showed significantly higher scores on all scales (<i>P</i>&lt;.001), and these significant differences persisted even after treatment (<i>P</i>&lt;.001). In the comparison between the VR treatment responder and nonresponder subgroups, there was no significant difference across the course of the VR session. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicated that a participatory and interactive VR intervention had a significant effect on alleviation of the clinical symptoms of SAD, confirming the usefulness of VR for the treatment of SAD. VR treatment is expected to be one of various beneficial therapeutic approaches in the future. CLINICALTRIAL Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS) KCT0003854; https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/search_result_st01.jsp?seq=13508

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