One in five people suffer from fear of heights at some point in life and most never receive treatment. In the past, although phobias have been treated with virtual reality (VR), a therapist always guides the user through the treatment. A new research conducted by Professor Daniel Freeman from the University of Oxford reports about VR programme, in which psychological therapy, is delivered by a computer-generated virtual coach. Findings were published in the journal, The Lancet Psychiatry.
In this largest randomised controlled trial for fear of heights treatments, 100 patients with fear of heights were randomly allocated to VR therapy (automated VR delivered in roughly six 30-minute sessions administered about 2-3 times a week for a 2-week period) vs usual care (control group). The primary outcome measure was Heights Interpretation Questionnaire (HIQ) score (range 16-80, with higher scores indicating greater severity).
Fear of heights reduced significantly in VR vs control group (adjusted difference in HIQ score, –24.0; P<.0001). The benefit was maintained at follow-up (adjusted difference in HIQ score, –24.3; P<.0001). All participants in the VR group showed a reduction in fear of heights, with average reduction being 68.0%. No adverse events were reported.
Professor Freeman commented: “We were confident the treatment would prove effective, but the outcomes exceeded our expectations. Over three quarters of the participants receiving the VR treatments showed at least a halving of their fear of heights.” He adds further, “Our study demonstrates that VR can be an extremely powerful means to deliver psychological therapy.”
