Efren:

One thing I can tell you is that you are headed in the right direction. I have reviewed some successful virtual therapeutic enviornments and some not so sucessful. I do have suggestions if your interested, let me know.

Sure, I would love to hear any suggestions on this topic.

I do not have direct experience with this topic, although I do know a new VR-device called "Oculus Rift" is in development. It seems like a fairly promising piece of hardware, but I do not know of any software applications that might be relevant.

I am currently developing an application for communication training in immersive 3D environments (CAVE). There are several things that still need to be developed, but I think we are getting there. I think it's really important to achieve real time interaction with the virtual scenario and virtual humans. If you have more specific questions, let me know.

Hi Efren,

I’m not a psychologist, but I am studying Applied Psychology and am intrigued by this topic. Speaking from personal experience, I think one of the areas (among many) where VREs can help is for anxiety disorders. If health-care providers with anxiety-ridden patients can implement a program where a typically anxious situation is presented through VRE, the ‘healing process’ might become easier- If the situation is simulated and the patient is in the safe environment of their home/ doctor’s office, they have the immediate capability of not only exiting the anxious situation knowing they are still safe, or they might feel more confident to overcome the hypothetical anxious scenario, knowing help is a blink away, thereby easing them into the process of overcoming such situations when they are alone. Some interesting studies support the use of VREs for different kinds of anxieties, such as one helping individuals overcoming fear of heights (n.a., 1995), public speaking (Anderson et al, 2005), general anxieties (Gorini et al, 2010; Opris et al, 2011) and I also came across a good review by Gerardi et al (2010) that might be of interest.

I’d say that options need to include a medium through which the patient is comfortable (for example differentiating between those that can withstand doing the treatment in an office, versus whether they prefer to be at home), and the technology and program used should of course be applicable to their specific type of anxiety and the patients’ lifestyle. I don’t know whether this helps? All the best for your research!

Kind Regards,

Plamena

Sources:

Anderson, P.L., Zimand, E., Hodges, L.F., & Rothbaum, B.O. (2005). Cognitive behavioural therapy for public-speaking anxiety using virtual reality for exposure. Depression and Anxiety, 22(3), 156-158.

Gerardi, M., Cukor, J., Difede, J., Rizzo, A., & Rothbaum, B.O. (2010). Virtual reality exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, 12: 298-305.

Gorini, A., Pallavicini, F., Algeri, D., Repetto, C., Gaggiolo, A., & Riva, G. (2010). Virtual reality in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorders. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 154: 39-43.

n.a. (1995). Effectiveness of computer-generated (virtual reality) graded exposure in the treatment of acrophobia. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 152: 626-628. Abstract retrieved from: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=170952

Opris, D., Pintea, S., García-Palacios, A., Botella, C., Szamosközi, S., & David, D. (2011). Virtual reality exposure therapy in anxiety disorders: A quantitative meta-analysis. Depression and Anxiety, 0: 1-9.