The past two decades has witnessed the emergence of virtual reality (VR) as a major tool for investigation, assessment, and management of medical and psychiatric disorders. The growing interest in medical applications of VR is highlighted by the fact that the number of scientific articles published in Medline every year on this topic increased from 45 in 1995 to 951 in 2003 to 3,203 in 2010.[1,2,3] There are many definitions of VR, one of which is given here: “Virtual reality refers to immersive, interactive, multi-sensory, viewer-centered, three dimensional computer generated environments and the combination of technologies required to build these environments.”
Notes:
I learned that There are two different uses of VR in healthcare: VR as a simulation tool and VR as an interaction tool. More importantly, uses of VR is also an effective tool in psychiatry. The effectiveness of VR has been verified in the treatment of acrophobia, panic disorder and agoraphobia, binge eating disorders, and fear of flying. It is also used to help autistic adults or children develop the skills necessary for independence. VR can also be used in the treatment for PTSD. Patients are exposed to the source of their disorder, for example, a battlefield. Exposing the patients to the source of trauma, combined with relaxation training will enable them to adapt to the stress. Further as they are exposed to this gradually, the level of threat is removed, which then decreases their feelings of anxiety. It is expected that over time the patient will lose the feelings of anxiety caused by their condition. Study was conducted to assess the efficacy of VR therapy in PTSD cases on a 6-month follow-up. The 6-month follow-up on patients found reductions in PTSD symptoms ranging from 15 to 67%.
This is crucial as my research includes the use of interactive animation, which could likely integrate the VR technology, to raise awareness of mental illnesses such as depression and PTSD.
References:
Srivastava, K., Das, R. C., & Chaudhury, S. (2014). Virtual reality applications in Mental Health: Challenges and perspectives. Industrial psychiatry journal. Retrieved January 18, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4361984/
