A new virtual reality therapy could help people who have fear of heights. After the clinical trial of this new therapy technology, various participants reported that they felt less scared of heights only after two weeks.
Other VR therapies employed by therapists usually involve an actual therapist who acts as a guide to the patient throughout the treatment but the new system coaches patients by creating an animated avatar who helps patients fight their fear by ascending a virtual high-rise.
The counseling system is said to be fully automated was described recently in the journal Lancet Psychiatry. Scientists are excited because this system could make treatment for phobias and other similar disorders accessible to more people.
Many are regarding this as “a huge step forward” for therapeutic VR- because the system not only brings treatment to primary-clinics but also to people’s homes since it does not require patients to be guided by a therapist.
The system is very easy to use: users need a VR headset, handheld controllers and a pair of headphones. Patients are guided by an animated counselor through a virtual 10-story high rise. The uppermost floors overlook a ground-level atrium and at every floor a task is assigned to the user to make them feel safer. At the beginning, the tasks are pretty simple- user avatars will be standing close to a drop-off- and gradually the tasks become difficult- avatars are required to ride a moving platform into the open space that is built over the atrium.
Daniel Freeman, clinical psychologist at the University of Oxford said that by doing these tasks “the person builds up memories that being around heights is safe, and this counteracts the old fear beliefs.”
For the trial, Freeman and his team worked with 100 adult volunteers who were moderately or severely afraid of heights. 49 volunteers were randomly chosen to undergo the VR treatment and the other 51 volunteers received no treatment.
Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire in which they had to rate their fear on a scale of 16 to 80 before treatment, immediately after the treatment, and two weeks after the treatment. Volunteers who underwent VR therapy saw a reduction of about 25 points on average while adults who did not receive any treatment saw no change in their points.
“When I’ve always got anxious about an edge, I could feel the adrenaline in my legs, that fight/flight thing; that’s not happening as much now,” one of the participants said. “I’m still getting a bit of a reaction to it, both in VR and outside as well, but it’s much more brief, and I can then feel my thighs soften up as I’m not bracing up against that edge.”
While this new VR therapy treatment technique might be a good start for people who are extremely scared of heights but scientists stress that it should not be considered as the go-to treatment method for everyone. For patients who suffer from severe symptoms like psychosis- VR does not have the potential to replace trained therapists in the near future.