The company HELMET VISION conducts experimental treatment of phobias in conjunct

Posted by Edward Collins on June 12th, 2019

Phobias are the most common mental disorders in the U.S. according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Approximately 28 million of people in the U.S. have specific phobias. Lots of people suffer from some of the most common phobias (% of people affected) :

Acrophobia (Fear of Heights) 7.5%

Arachnophobia (Fear of Spiders) 3.5%

Aerophobia (Fear of Flying) 2.6%

Astraphobia (Fear of Thunder & lightning) 2.1%

Dentophobia (Fear of Dentist) 2.1%

“A lot of people do not get treatment for despite it impinging on many people’s lives quite a lot,” said Daniel Freeman, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford and first author of the research "Treating phobias in virtual reality".

Freeman and colleagues report how they split 100 adults who had a phobia of heights randomly into two groups: 49 were invited to don a HELMET VISION for half an hour, two or three times a week for a fortnight, while those in the other group carried on as usual with no specific treatment.

In total, 47 people undertook at least one VR session and completed about four and a half sessions on average.The therapy involved an avatar coach carrying out an assessment before inviting the individual to choose a floor of a virtual building and asking them to perform activities, such as rescuing a cat from a branch, to explore the thoughts behind their fears.

Individuals had their fear of heights assessed through a series of questionnaires at the start of the study, at the end of the two week therapy period, and again after another two weeks had passed.

The results reveal that all 49 of those in the VR group showed a significant improvement in their phobia, with scores on a self-reported questionnaire about fear of heights falling by 68% on average. Those scores of those who received no therapy showed little change, dropping by just over 3% on average.

These are all discussed as a series of individual articles. Some of these will be more familiar than others but what they all have in common is a sense of fear or dread and an expectation of the worst case scenario. Virtual reality can help in all of these cases.

Research indicates that 6 to 12 sessions are required to achieve maximum benefit.