Farmers news in Turkey and Russia places the Virtual Reality (VR) headset in cows to reduce their anxiety, and thus increase their milk yields, made to read fun. We have also seen VR helping to reduce pain for patients during difficult medical procedures. Now, experts from the University of Otago, Christchurch have diverted their attention to various types of phobias that affect humans, and follow trials, they report that the technology can really help relieve phobias.
As part of their research, the team in the Psychological Department of Psychological Institute relies on cellular applications that are guided by themselves called “Ovrcome” to start the journey to treat phobias by combining exposure to VR 360-Degree video and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). A total of 129 participants were part of this study that considered five different types of phobias including flying, needles, height, profit -profit, and dogs. The team reported that following VR treatment, participants “showed a comparable increase in severity for a certain phobia scale.”
In addition, the severity of the phobia switched from the medium level category (28/40) to a minimum risk (7/40) in a range of six weeks. The core principle behind this treatment is to make the subject face their fear in the form of watery and then slowly increase it some notch to build their tolerance in a clinically recognized way. One of the subjects of the test who was afraid of profit -profit finally confident enough to eliminate Arachnid from their own home, while other participants who were afraid of flying showed the will to order a vacation abroad.
The test subjects are allowed to choose a VR video with a comfortable number of exposure with it. Overall, the new treatment that VR moved is said to have reduced symptoms of phobia with margin of about 75% after the treatment of exposure that lasts six weeks, which is quite extraordinary. This study, which has been published in the journal Psychiatry Australia and New Zealand, concluded that VR treatment was proven to be “effective in reducing the severity of certain phobia symptoms.”
