VR and Depression
The therapist will then most likely begin cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with you in order to help you restructure and adjust the parts of your life that you discover are contributing to your depression.
VR was used to allow individuals to view the actions and behaviors of themselves and others from varying perspectives in virtual reality, which would have otherwise been nearly impossible to achieve.
Findings favor VR exercise in alleviating anxiety and depression symptomology.
However, existing evidence is insufficient to support the advantages of VR exercise as a standalone treatment over traditional therapy in the alleviation of anxiety and depression given the paucity of studies, small sample sizes, and lack of high-quality research designs.
Virtual reality enhanced interventions had moderate to large effects compared to control conditions, though these effects were likely inflated by several factors in the design and implementation of the trials.
The limited number of studies reporting on depression outcomes precluded us from drawing a meaningful conclusion about small study effects.
Cost Effective compared to traditional treatments?
hinge on the specific disorder targeted
Cambridge Core: Research funded by UK Medical Research Council
Immersive virtual reality intervention session, and at 4-week follow-up.
The virtual environment matches the placement of the actual physical room with only an extra mirror where the participants could see a reflection of their virtual self.
Phase 1
Participants instructed to memorise and deliver slowly, softly and compassionately to the child generic sentences that correspond with three stages of compassionate response based on current knowledge and practice in compassion-focused therapy
Validation
Redirection of attention
Memory activation
The child is programmed to respond positively to the participant after the delivery of each stage of their compassionate response.
Phase 2
Participant is now embodied in the virtual body of the child and were guided through the same exercises as before to become accustomed to their environment from this new perspective and to the different body.
Participants then re-experienced their compassionate response from their new perspective as the child. This included a real-time replay for approximately 2 min of their original adult body delivering compassion, which portrayed their own body movements and voice.
Beautiful, serene underwater world that responds to player’s stress with soothing resonance and gently guides them to take those desperately-needed deep breaths.
The controller in the game is your own breath. With each inhale you glide upwards and with each exhale, downwards.
DEEP is not a tool to get rid of depression and anxiety altogether, but rather to encourage players to become aware of the ebb and flow of these emotions and ride them through.
Through repeated experience, hopefully player will retain “muscle memory” of deep diaphragmic breathing and the optimism that they can ride through future stressful experiences.
Do You M.I.N.D.?
By donning a VR headset, they will take on the persona of a virtual character - a girl who suffers from depression - and listen to her inner thoughts like their own.
National Training Laboratory:
VR training yielded a 75 % retention rate, compared to a 5 % and a 10 % rate for lecture-style learning and reading respectively,
Generalization of participants’ description of depression
Represented with metaphorical symbols in an immersive alternate realm
VR induce spatial immersion and narrative leads to emotional immersion
First-person experience intend to help people gain a better understanding on the experience and feelings of those with depression
Hope to unshroud stigma surrounding the mental disorder, consider it an integral part of health
Things to consider:
Accuracy of interpretation
Consulting with individuals would increase accuracy on conveying their emotions
However, it is also the intention of the project to study the representation of media representation of depression
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