"Many patients appear to have difficulty imagining the prescribed anxiety evoking scene. They also express strong aversion to experiencing real situations".
"VRT can provide stimuli for patients who have difficulty imagine scenes. "
"VRT can generate stimuli of much greater magnitude than standard in vivo techniques"
Case Study- Fear of flying
"first pilot study which was conducted in the late november 1992. The subject was a 32 year old married woman, a human computer interaction group researcher, who was diagnosed and treated for fear of flying utilizing an existing virtual scene. The virtual scene was a simulated city running on a Silicon Graphics computer. This scene originally was created to conduct research on an innovative navigational techniques for virtual environments. The subject participated in eight sessions, each lasting about 30 minutes. The subject reported a high level of anxiety at the beginning of each session, gradually reported lower anxiety levels after remaining in the situation for a few minutes and eventually reported an anxiety level of zero." To investigate the transfer effect of VRT to the real world, she was flown with the therapist accompanying her on a helicopter for approximately 10 minutes at low altitude over a beach on the Gulf of Mexico. As with the VRT sessions, she reported some anxiety at the beginning, but anxiety rapidly reduced to a reasonably comfortable level. Now the subject much more comfortably flies for long distances and experiences much less anxiety
Case study- Aerophobia
In September of 1995, a 42-year-old married man who conducts research at Clark Atlanta University sought treatment for the fear of flying. The subject, accompanied by a virtual therapist, was placed in the cockpit of a virtual environment helicopter and flown over a simulated city for five sessions.
The subject experienced a number of physical and emotional anxiety-related symptoms during the VRT sessions. These symptoms included sweaty palms, loss of balance, weakness in the knees, etc. The VRT resulted in both a significant reduction of anxiety symptoms and the ability to face the phobic situation in the real world. The subject at this time is able to fly to the different geographical locations in reasonable comfort.
Results
"When subjected to virtual phobic-invoking situations, our subjects exhibited the same types of responses as would be exhibited in a real-world situation."
Exposure Therapy
The aim of Expose therapy is for the patient to be exposed to what troubles them and over time become indifferent to it.
Safety/Risks
"While there are some potential risks associated with virtual reality technology, as pointed out by Stanney [17], definite steps must be taken in treatment to minimize these risks. According to Stanney, subjects at risk for psychological harm are primarily those who suffer from panic attacks, those with serious medical problems such as heart disease or epilepsy, and those who are (or have recently been) taking drugs with major physiological or psychological effects. As is clearly stated above, questions regarding these situations must be asked as a part of the screening process, and persons with these characteristics must be excluded from VRT experiences"
Results
"When subjected to virtual phobic-invoking situations, our subjects exhibited the same types of responses as would be exhibited in a real-world situation."
Exposure Therapy
The aim of Expose therapy is for the patient to be exposed to what troubles them and over time become indifferent to it.
Safety/Risks
"While there are some potential risks associated with virtual reality technology, as pointed out by Stanney [17], definite steps must be taken in treatment to minimize these risks. According to Stanney, subjects at risk for psychological harm are primarily those who suffer from panic attacks, those with serious medical problems such as heart disease or epilepsy, and those who are (or have recently been) taking drugs with major physiological or psychological effects. As is clearly stated above, questions regarding these situations must be asked as a part of the screening process, and persons with these characteristics must be excluded from VRT experiences"
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