Violent and aggressive behavior as well as disorders related to aggressive behavior are highly common in both adult and juvenile forensic psychiatric patients. In order to minimize the risk for future violent offending it is important to intervene in this high risk population. Previous research showed that punishment alone is counterproductive for repeated offending behavior. In contrast, treatment was found to have a positive effect on reoffending (i.e., less reoffending). However, although knowledge about the treatment of forensic psychiatric patients has increased significantly in recent decades, it is still not fully understood what works for whom under what circumstances. One promising new treatment option is Virtual Reality (VR). A newly developed program in this area is the Virtual Reality Aggression Prevention Training (VRAPT). This training is currently implemented and examined in correctional and forensic psychiatric facilities in the Netherlands and in Sweden. Results from the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the effectiveness of the intervention showed that the VRAPT group showed a decrease in some aggressive behaviors at post-test, but not anymore at 3-month follow-up. The purpose of the current feasibility and pilot study is to test VRAPT in a Swiss forensic psychiatric setting, including both adult and juvenile patients, and to gather information needed for the design of a large, international, high-quality, multicenter RCT. The research questions will address the effect of VRAPT on aggressive behavior, state-trait anger expression, stages of motivational change, and emotion regulation. The present investigation will be the first study to include juvenile forensic psychiatric patients as well as to test VRAPT in Switzerland, thereby increasing the generalizability of the research to other populations. In addition, it will address problem awareness and therapy motivation as possible factors influencing treatment outcome, and address some of the limitations of previous research.
Violent and aggressive behavior as well as disorders related to aggressive behavior are highly common in both adult and juvenile forensic psychiatric patients.One promising new treatment option is Virtual Reality (VR). A newly developed program in this area is the Virtual Reality Aggression Prevention Training (VRAPT). The purpose of the current feasibility and pilot study is to test VRAPT in a Swiss forensic psychiatric setting, including both adult and juvenile patients, and to examine whether VRAPT is an effective treatment method for aggressive behavior in forensic psychiatric settings.