The terror of emptiness is won by plunging into virtual reality

Oxford University Research, Completed in the Lancet, Shows How "Virtual" Therapy Helps to Solve a widespread phobia, even without the therapist

Immersive virtual reality, complete with a virtual "therapist" could help reduce the fear of pathological size. The demonstration comes from an article published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the first clinical trial to show that virtual reality works well by itself, so without the need for the presence of a therapist in the flesh. The study was conducted by Daniel Freeman of the University of Oxford, and involved 100 patients with a clinical diagnosis of height phobia, one of the most common which affects a person in five, one in 20 seriously

. In the experiment, 49 of the 100 participants had to participate in six sessions (30 minutes each) during two weeks of "virtual therapy," starting with a dialogue with an "imaginary" imaginary coach giving general advice on how to handle phobia. At the training, patients had to do exercises related to their fear, for example playing ball near the edge of a slope, walking on a platform in a vacuum and other "tests" Very difficult for those who are afraid of emptiness. The other participants in the trial simply had to continue standard care, which often meant no treatment. Well, it turned out that those who did the two weeks of virtual testing drastically reduced their phobia of emptiness, with effects that lasted even a year after treatment.

This is a promising approach, emphasize the authors, because it shows the possibility of a therapy without having to refer to a therapist in the flesh, which could help treat more of people and could also be extended to other forms of pathological phobia.

phobia

empty

therapy

virtual reality

fear

therapist