The Cutting Edge of Schizophrenia Research: VR(Virtual Reality) as Treatment for Psychosis

https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/schizophrenia-advisor/the-cutting-edge-of-schizophrenia-research-vr-as-treatment-for-psychosis/

The VR training included a game in which participants navigated through a seascape towards a yellow star while avoiding sharks and eels.

The researchers found that compared with patients receiving typical in-facility treatment the patients using VR had significantly higher overall cognitive scores on the Cognistat Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination.

non-conventional groups also performed tasks typical of working in a boutique, including greeting customers, finding clothes, and problem-solving when items were not in stock.

The researchers found that patients in the VR group had higher scores in a test of executive function than both the therapist-administered group and the conventional treatment group. Both novel treatment groups had improvements in their on-site work performance scores.

In a similar fashion, Pot-Kolder and colleagues9 used VR CBT to treat 58 patients who had psychosis with paranoid ideation and/or social avoidance and compared that treatment with control patients receiving treatment as usual. The VR CBT sessions included a virtual social environment, such as a supermarket, in which the number of virtual human characters and their responses to the participant were varied to align with the patient’s paranoia.

I think this is a great idea. What I like is doing VR on your own pace in a safe environment. Might as well learn something.

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