Virtual Reality a great promise in addressing stress

Anxiety disorders are among the most common form of mental disorders affecting over 18% of adults. The estimated prevalence of anxiety disorders worldwide is 7.3%, and this constitutes a high proportion of the global burden of the disease.

Anxiety symptoms can cause significant distress, impair quality of life, and increase stress. Anxiety increases risk for a range of co-occurring physical conditions, including chronic pain. Given the pervasiveness of anxiety and its impact on mental and physical health, effective treatment is clearly needed, yet a majority of affected individuals remain untreated.

The role of Virtual Reality (VR) in managing anxiety has been a growing dimension of the healthcare industry as demonstrated by the growing use of technology – along with augmented reality – to create cost-effective and repeatable training courses for surgeons. In physical and cognitive therapy, too, VR shows great promise. their way into hospitals and therapists’ offices.

Riding a wave of interest in mental health technology, companies creating VR content for therapeutic outcomes are receiving a deluge of attention and funding. And, while VR has been used successfully to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the 1990s, these new programmes address a much broader range of conditions.

Today’s VR content is primarily designed to aid exposure therapy, a treatment for anxiety disorders in which patients are exposed to anxiety, inducing stimuli in a safe, controlled environment, eventually learning that the ‘threats’ they’re worried about are not actually very dangerous. For example, someone who fears heights might visit progressively taller buildings under the guidance of their therapist (in vivo exposure), while someone with PTSD might revisit traumatic memories in therapy sessions (imaginary exposure).

A new wave of psychological research is pioneering VR to diagnose and treat medical conditions from social anxiety to chronic pain to Alzheimer’s disease. Many of these solutions are still in the laboratory stage, but some are already making Although medications and talk therapy can help calm the symptoms of PTSD, the most effective therapies often require confronting the trauma, as with virtual-reality-based treatments. These computer programmes, similar to a video game, allow people to feel as if they are in the traumatic scenario.

Research has shown how heart rate, facial muscles, electrodermal activity (EDA/GSR), respiration, and other aspects of physiology are reliably impacted by fearful responses. By quantifying these responses in a virtual environment, researchers can get a better idea of what induces fear, and which components are critical for alleviating the fear response.

The use of biosensors has also provided promising results for using VR alongside conventional therapy. Individuals with general anxiety disorder have been found to exhibit differences in their level of electrodermal activity, which could be used to provide information for judging therapy success.

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Signals and Sensors has added to the research volume in this area showing that virtual reality (VR) can be helpful in treating claustrophobia. The software in this study simulated an elevator moving to the tenth floor and also a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. Researchers found that it was helpful to reduce anxiety and was accessible and easy for people to use it. The study also examined different dimen-

This study adds to the emerging, promising research using VR technology as a way to address various types of anxiety disorders. Another recent study has examined whether virtual reality could be used to treat social anxiety as well. VR technology is not just limited to the therapists’ office either. One study found that immersive virtual reality could be used as a distraction tool to reduce pain, anxiety, and help with anger management in the emergency room. Another study found that VR can help successfully reduce anxiety in children undergoing dental procedures. VR can also teach mindfulness skills to help people with generalized anxiety disorders. VR exposure therapy (VRET) permits individualized, gradual, controlled, immersive exposure that is easy for therapists to implement and often more acceptable to patients than in vivo or imaginary exposure.

VR consists of a fully immersive, 3-D environment that transports people to engaging, interactive environments that can promote new

Incorporating VR in therapy can increase the ease, acceptability and effectiveness of treatment for anxiety. learning. VR technology also has the potential to assist in training, evaluation, delivery, and supervision of psychotherapy skills, and can provide patients with a physiologically and emotionally evocative experience which can make VR a valuable tool for mental health treatment.