Virtual Reality Therapy Shows Promising Results In Reducing Depression

Experimental treatments using virtual reality technology have helped people with depression reduce symptoms, according to a study published Monday in the journal British Journal of Psychiatry Open.

The study, conducted by researchers from University College London (UCL) and ICREA-University of Barcelona, offers a promising proof-of-concept.

The therapy was used by 15 depression patients aged 23 to 61. The study showed that nine reported reduced depressive symptoms a month after the therapy, of whom four experienced a clinically significant drop in depression severity, according to the study.

Patients in the study wore a virtual reality headset to see from the perspective of a life-size “avatar” or a virtual body. Seeing this virtual body in a mirror moving in the same way as their own body typically produces the illusion that this is their own body. This is called “embodiment”.

While embodied in an adult avatar, participants were trained to express compassion towards a distressed virtual child. As they talked to the child it appeared to gradually stop crying and respond positively to the compassion.

After a few minutes the patients were embodied in the virtual child and saw the adult avatar deliver their own compassionate words and gestures to them. This brief eight-minute scenario was repeated three times at weekly intervals, and patients were followed up a month later, according to the study.

“People who struggle with anxiety and depression can be excessively self-critical when things go wrong in their lives,” said one of the study authors Professor Chris Brewin from UCL.

“In this study, by comforting the child and then hearing their own words back, patients are indirectly giving themselves compassion. The aim was to teach patients to be more compassionate towards themselves and less self-critical, and we saw promising results,” said Brewin.

A month after the study, several patients described how their experience had changed their response to real-life situations in which they would previously have been self-critical, according to Brewin.

But since this is a small trial without a control group, it cannot show whether the intervention is responsible for the clinical improvement in patients.

The team now hopes to develop the technique further to conduct a larger controlled trial, so that they can confidently determine any clinical benefit, said the researchers. (PNA/Xinhua) JBP/EBP