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Acrophobia is an anxious and uncontrollable fear of heights. This is the most common phobia: one in five people report having had it during their lifetime and one in 20 has been clinically diagnosed with this phobia. The good news is for them
These data are cited in the research published this Wednesday in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry and which shows the results of a randomized controlled trial conducted by Professor Daniel Freeman of the University of Oxford. He points out that psychological therapy delivered by a virtual reality coach (VR) can help people recover with this diagnosed fear.
This is the first study to use virtual reality technology as a treatment without therapist, which highlights how some psychological interventions might be offered in the future.
The search had 100 volunteers. However, researchers warn that more work is needed to understand how it would be applied in other conditions, including more serious mental disorders, such as psychosis, in which therapy is currently performed by professionals experienced in mental health.
In previous research, people afraid of heights used virtual reality in sessions with a therapist. The study revealed that it was just as effective as exposure to heights in real life and that this decrease in fear lasted at least a year.
"Immersive virtual reality therapies that do not need a therapist have" the main author, the psychologist Freeman, told EL COLOMBIANO
This is further developed by email, Mark Hayward, Director of the Mental Health Unit of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and who has no connection with the study: "Si you can offer evidence-based treatments through a fully automated virtual reality system without the presence of a therapist, many more patients could receive psychological treatments.In my opinion, the potential magnitude of the positive impact on the patients could represent a significant transformation. "
Research
In the study, 49 people with a clinical diagnosis of fear of heights that do not occur. have not received psychological therapy have received u the new automated treatment and 51 volunteers, who make up the control group, the usual care, which is generally not a treatment but a support without regularity or control. On average, participants had been afraid of heights for 30 years.
Participants completed questionnaires on the severity of their fear of heights at the beginning of the trial, at the end of treatment (two weeks later) and at the follow-up after four weeks
Those who received a treatment of reality virtual had about six 30-minute sessions for two weeks, where they wore a virtual reality headset.
In the first session, participants discussed their fear of heights. the virtual trainer, explaining what caused his fear (for example, fear of falling, throwing himself off the building, collapse of the building), while the virtual trainer gave them basic information about this phobia.
virtual office complex with ten floors and a large atrium, where they took part in activities that challenged their fears and helped them learn that they were more seg Uros of what they thought. They started with simpler tasks, such as watching a safety barrier that gradually diminishes, and performing more difficult tasks, such as walking on a platform during a big fall. Other tasks involved saving a cat from a tree, playing a xylophone near an edge and throwing balls at the edge of a descent.
Throughout the activities, the virtual coach offered encouragement and then explained what the participant learned and asked if he felt safer than before. He also encouraged us to try real heights between sessions.
"We need more qualified therapists, but to meet the high demand for mental health care, we need powerful technology solutions. As we have seen in our clinical trial, virtual reality treatments have the potential to be effective, and faster and more appealing to many patients than traditional face-to-face therapies, adds Freeman
. Follow-up, control group participants rated their fear of heights as similar, nothing changed, while those in the virtual reality group noted that their fear was reduced.
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