Application of VR to exposure therapy for anxiety and phobias

The project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using Web technology to deliver individually adapted Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT) to patients in the community while still retaining a suitable involvement of therapists.

The Global Burden of Disease study forecasts that by the 2020, road traffic accidents (RTAs) will be the third leading cause of disability facing the world community. The economic, health and social burden of RTAs in the UK alone represents a considerable cost to the individual, to the NHS and to society with 271,017 reported RTA casualties in 2005 (Department for Transport Statistics Bulletin (06) 26, 2005). Whilst evidence-based psychological therapies exist to effectively treat anxiety-related disorders (NICE Guidelines, 2005), their availability is severely restricted because of insufficient therapists and expenditure priorities in the NHS for mental health, which are predominantly dedicated to those who suffer from schizophrenia or manic depression (approximately 1% of the population).

Anxiety-reducing therapies generally require patients to be re-exposed to the source of anxiety; a requirement, which poses legal, practical and ethical issues in treating driving phobia and travel anxiety. VRT represents an exciting opportunity to re-expose patients to realistic driving scenarios in a controlled, safe and interactive environment using computer graphics and various sensory stimuli to offer a sense of presence but achieve sufficient emotional arousal to afford major therapeutic potential.

In summary, the project offers the following benefits:

· A flexible treatment programme tailored to suit patients’ needs and capable of home delivery.

· It avoids the risk of re-traumatisation through exposure (a very real risk of exposure therapies).

· The programme enables the implementation of evidence-based treatments, which are scarcely available through a lack of trained therapists.

· The programme will increase treatment compliance and confidentiality.

· It will enable systematic evaluation of the most effective treatment components.

· It is a safe method of treatment not only for driving phobia but other trauma-related conditions, which have the propensity to become chronic.

Collaborators: Professor Patrik O’Brian Holt, Cognitive Engineering Research Group (RGU), Professor David Alexander & Dr. Susan Klein, Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research (RGU), Professor Ian Ricketts, School of Computing, University of Dundee, and Professor Nicholas Tarrier, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.