The Innovative Virtual Reality Therapy And Its Applications
Today, depression and anxiety disorders have become the most common mental disorders in our society. Over the years, different methodologies have been proposed to address its treatment. One of the most recent is the Virtual Reality Therapy.
This form of therapy allows situations to be relived virtually, so that patients can safely experience different problematic situations. Data from different investigations show positive results with few treatment sessions.
Virtual Reality Therapy for the treatment of depression
A study carried out by University College London (UCL) and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) suggests that virtual reality therapy (VR) may become a form of treatment for depression in the future. The research was carried out with 15 subjects who suffered from a depressive disorder. The age of the participants ranged between 23 and 61 years, and the results were positive in 60% of the cases.
Thanks to the fact that the cost of hardware has become cheaper and its functionality has increased, studies in this line of research have increased in recent years. Still, until now, few had treated depression as they focused on anxiety disorders. The research carried out by UCL and ICREA used techniques that had already been shown to be effective in other forms of therapy, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Therapy.
For this research and after placing the virtual reality headset on the study participants, the treatment began with the patient observing his own body in a mirror. This elicited embodiment or the illusion that the avatar (virtual identity) was her own body. The patients were then asked to show compassion for a distressed child. After taking care of him, he stopped crying and responded positively. Afterwards, the image changed perspective (to the child’s vision) and the child saw (i.e., the subjects) an adult saying his own words and gestures.
This 8-minute scenario was repeated three times over a three-week period. Of the participating subjects, 9 of 15 showed a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. Now, although the results are positive, the lack of a control group makes it necessary to carry out more research to confirm these results.
Dr. Chris Brewin, director of the study and professor of psychiatry, explains: “Self-compassion is important as it calms feelings of distress, because otherwise the distress can take control and become truly unbearable.” The author adds: “We now know that many patients with depression and other disorders have real problems being compassionate towards themselves, although they are often very good at being compassionate towards others.”
Virtual Reality Therapy for the treatment of anxiety
Virtual reality therapy has not only been shown to be effective for the treatment of depression, but has also been used for the treatment of anxiety for a long time.
There are several companies that have begun to include it as one of their services, because has shown its effectiveness in different anxiety disorders, especially for the treatment of phobias. For example, it is possible to recreate the environment of an airplane while it flies through virtual reality. It has also been shown to be effective in helping with public speaking.
This technique has also been used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients, who suffer from this condition due to a sexual assault, a car accident or a terrorist attack, such as the attack that occurred on September 11 in the United States. United States, and in which there were thousands of people affected. The researchers affirm that, in addition, also has shown effectiveness with eating disorders or alcoholism. The idea is that when a person is in a safe, three-dimensional environment, they can deal with the problem or people that cause anxiety more effectively.
TRV helps the patient cope with difficult emotions safely
One of the greatest experts in the application of this technique is Skip Rizzo, director of virtual reality research in medicine at the Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California. “When you talk about traumatic experiences like experiencing war or sexual assault, these are events that will change someone for a lifetime,” explains Rizzo. “We’re not creating digital violations here. Our goal is to get a person to be closer to facing tough emotions safely,” he adds.
Therefore, Is Virtual Reality Therapy the future of psychology? Time will tell that.
