Virtual Reality Therapy Can Dramatically Reduce Depression Symptoms, Says Research
An unusual new therapy that sees the patient donning a virtual reality headset that renders them as a child avatar could help to combat depression, according to new research.
In a study lead by researchers at UCL and ICREA-University of Barcelona involving 15 patients who were being treated for depression by the NHS, nine reported reduced symptoms of depression following the therapy sessions.
Four of those people also saw a significant drop in the severity of their depression.
The bizarre therapy involved patients donning a VR headset that projected an adult version of themselves in a virtual reality world.
The life-size avatar was then trained to communicate with an upset child avatar, sitting in the same virtual room.
The participants were encouraged to communicate with the virtual child, which eventually responded to their compassionate words and stopped crying.
At this point, the roles were reversed, with the patient taking on the role of the upset child. They then had their previous comforting phrases spoken back to them by the adult avatar in their own voice.
The idea of the sessions was to teach the patients to be less critical and more compassionate towards themselves.
“People who struggle with anxiety and depression can be excessively self-critical when things go wrong in their lives,” explains Professor Chris Brewin, lead researcher of the study.
“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,” added Professor Brewin.
While the results are encouraging, the test sample was extremely small and there was no control group.
The researchers plan to conduct a larger controlled trial in order to determine whether the unusual therapy has significant benefits for depression sufferers.
Image credit: UCL
