​​

​

Global interventions​

​

Theme leader

Ueli Schnyder

​

Trauma does not stop at borders, nor should interventions. Yet, many of our interventions have been developed and tested in Western high income countries  There is a need to examine interventions in other contexts and especially for interventions that are effective, easily applicable, scalable, or implementable in a variety contexts.

On this page research is presented on trauma related interventions with collaborators from different areas in the world.​

Intervention projects on cultural adaptations: here

​​

 

​​​​​​​​​​

​

VR-MIND

Hacking Pain with Virtual Mindfulness and Peer Support for Youth with Childhood Trauma Symptoms

​

Project leader: Tanya Tandon,  University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

Project group:  Cherine Fahim Marie, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Rashmi Gupta, Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory,  Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India; Chantal Martin Soelch, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Ulrich Schnyder, University of Zurich, Switzerland.

​

Aims

This project aims to prevent acute, sub-clinical physical pain from transitioning into chronic pain among university students aged 18–25 with a history of childhood adversity. By combining VR-guided mindfulness with student-led peer support, we seek to enhance engagement and improve pain and mental health outcomes across cultures.

 

Methods

A 4-week randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted at universities in Switzerland and India (N = 200; 100 per country). Students reporting acute, non-clinical physical pain will be randomized into two groups:

(1) VR-based mindfulness + peer support (small student-led groups after each session)

(2) VR-based mindfulness only (control group)

Outcomes include pain intensity (VAS, McGill Pain Questionnaire), mental health (DASS-21), childhood adversity (ACE questionnaire), and adherence (attendance, dropout, qualitative feedback). Data will be collected pre- and post-intervention and analyzed using linear mixed models.

​​

Current Status

We are currently finalizing ethics approvals and preparing recruitment materials. While initial data collection is planned for India and Switzerland, Collaborators are welcome (CAW) from other countries in the future who are interested in testing this culturally adaptive, scalable model.

If interested please contact Tanya Tandon. 

​

​

​

​