VRMC currently uses virtual reality exposure therapy (3-dimensional computer simulation) in combination with physiological monitoring and feedback to treat panic and anxiety disorders. These conditions include specific phobias such as fear of flying, fear of driving, fear of heights, fear of public speaking, fear of thunderstorms, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, arachnophobia, social phobia, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder due to motor vehicle accidents. General stress management and relaxation skills are taught for stress-related disorders.
Virtual reality exposure therapy places the client in a computer-generated world where they "experience" the various stimuli related to their phobia. The client wears a head-mounted display with small TV monitors and stereo earphones to receive both visual and auditory cues.
After an intake session and skill building sessions to teach the patient
how to control automatic responses to anxiety-provoking situations, the therapist
and client collaborate to create a hierarchy of anxiety-inducing situations.
In careful, controlled stages, the client is exposed to these virtual experiences
that elicit increasingly higher levels of anxiety. Each stage can be repeated
until the client is comfortable with the experience and satisfied with their
response. At every step, the therapist can see and hear what the client is
experiencing in the virtual world. If the level of anxiety becomes overwhelming,
the client can return to a less stressful level of treatment, or simply remove
the head-mounted display and exit the virtual world.
Click the image below for more information.
Click here to go the Cybertherapy 2007 website. Click here to go to the Interactive Media Institute.
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