Virtual Psychiatrist

Virtual reality will help to get rid of anxiety and fears that almost everyone has

Anatoly Alizar, Geektimes

iPhone VR Therapy System (Virtually Better, Inc.)
with an image of the available applications in the lower right corner.

The development of virtual reality began in the 50s of the last century, and in 1961 Philco Corporation developed the first Headsight virtual reality helmets for military use. Since then, VR technologies have somewhat improved their quality indicators, and now they are beginning to be used not only in military affairs, but also in other areas. For example, for the treatment of mental disorders. Specialists from Harvard University published a review article in the May/June 2017 issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, which examines the effectiveness of modern VR methods for the treatment of mental illnesses, and especially anxiety neuroses and phobias.

Anxiety neuroses (anxiety disorders) are a real scourge of our time. Because of them, people absolutely cannot relax, live happily and enjoy life. The main symptom is increased general anxiety. Often there may be a fear of illness or accident, spreading to yourself and / or your loved ones, a variety of worries and forebodings. It is more common in women and in many cases is associated with chronic everyday stress.

Other symptoms are the need for movement, or speech anxiety, often not realized, fear, depression, obsessive thoughts, hypochondriac fears, sleep disorders, depersonalization. With depersonalization, one's own actions are perceived as if from the outside and are accompanied by a feeling of inability to control them. It is often accompanied by derealization, when the surrounding world is perceived as unreal or remote, devoid of its colors. According to doctors, the reasons for this condition are prolonged mental overstrain or short in frequency, but strong in intensity stresses. 

Virtual reality applications are especially useful in the treatment of specific phobias, because they help a person gradually immerse themselves in the world of their fears, while simultaneously realizing the unreality of what is happening, but at the same time getting rid of a mental disorder.

For the realism of the transmitted sensations, therapeutic virtual reality applications use VR helmets, gloves, synthesized sounds and vibrotactile platforms. All this allows you to actively explore the virtual world, and in some cases interact with it.

Harvard scientists note that virtual reality is potentially a very powerful and useful tool for the psychiatric community, because tests are conducted in a controlled environment. They can be repeated exactly or modified by carefully studying the effect. They list the results of several experiments in which VR was used to treat the following disorders:

• Specific fears of specific objects and situations: fear of heights, flight, animals, needles, blood, etc. The most well-researched is the VR treatment of the fear of flying: two studies have been conducted here. They showed that after therapy, the number of patients who bought plane tickets and flew away increased. In general, VR together with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) shows a better result than CBT alone.

• Social phobia. This is a mental state when a person experiences anxiety in social relationships – for example, before a public speech or before meeting new people. Here, VR applications showed the same effectiveness as CBT, and the effect of treatment persisted after a year.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder. Several studies have shown a positive effect of VR treatment: the effect ranges from medium-positive to very good. Experiments were set up to help victims after the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center – for them, the treatment was very effective. Helping Vietnam War veterans with virtual reality didn't help much, but there was too small a sample. But experiments on combat participants and active military personnel demonstrated the real benefits of VR.

• Panic disorder and agoraphobia: a sudden influx of anxiety (panic attack) with psychological (palpitations, sweating, lack of air) and cognitive (loss of concentration, fear or thoughts of death) symptoms, which leads to avoidance of certain places or situations (most often tunnels, parking lots, city squares, highways). Some experiments have shown that VR has the same positive effect as traditional exposure therapy. In other cases, VR technology was even more efficient, taking less time.

• General anxiety disorder. In one of the small experiments to measure the level of everyday stress, some of the 20 patients wore bio-sensors, and VR sessions taught patients to relax. There was no significant difference in the results with the control group.

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) – obsessive, disturbing or frightening thoughts (so-called obsessions). A person tries to get rid of them with the help of equally intrusive and tedious actions (compulsions) – for example, constantly washing his hands. In this area, the effectiveness of VR treatment has not yet been evaluated, there have been only two studies on the detection of OCD using VR.

• Schizophrenia – there are no reliable data yet, only the first studies of the use of VR in the treatment of schizophrenia have been conducted, but they have given promising results.

• Acute and chronic pain. An initial experiment was conducted on a small group of four patients with burns. It turned out that the subjective assessment of pain is lower in patients who underwent therapy using VR. Another experience on a cancer patient confirmed that being in virtual reality reduces suffering during painful procedures. Comparative testing of painkillers in combination with VR also confirmed that this method is more effective than conventional painkillers.

The researchers also mention experiments conducted in the treatment of autism, addictions and various forms of eating disorders.

The first scientific article on the use of virtual reality in medicine was published in 1995. For two decades, a sufficient scientific base has been collected to confidently talk about the good prospects of using VR for the treatment of various mental disorders, phobias, anxiety disorders and other mental ailments.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  11.05.2017