How virtual reality can cure phobias

Psychological therapy in which people confront their fears in virtual reality could play a key role in tackling phobias and other mental health issues, a new study has found.

Acrophobia, or fear of heights, is the most commonly reported phobia, affecting one in five people during their lifetime, with one in 20 people clinically diagnosed.

In the study, outlined in a paper published in journal The Lancet, researchers at the University of Oxford enlisted 100 volunteers, all of whom had a clinically diagnosed fear of heights but none of whom were receiving treatment for their phobia.

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The researchers split the volunteers into two groups: 51 served as the control and underwent no treatment, while the other 49 underwent a “two-week-long virtual reality (VR) treatment regimen”, says science news site Futurism.

During the VR therapy, an avatar coach carried out an assessment of the subject, before guiding them around a ten-storey virtual building and asking them to perform activities “such as rescuing a cat from a branch, to explore the thoughts behind their fears”, The Guardian reports.

The subject rated the extent of their fear of heights with scores in a series of questionnaires at the start of the study, at the end of the two-week therapy period, and then again two weeks later.

The researchers found that all participants in the VR group showed a reduction in fear, which fell by an average of 68%. The scientists have that such treatment could be useful in treating a range of mental health conditions.

“These results are better than those expected with the best psychological intervention delivered face to face with a therapist,” says a statement on the website of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry.

Professor of clinical psychology Daniel Freeman, first author of the research, said that while fear of heights is the most common type of phobia, “we know a lot of people do not get treatment for it, despite it impinging on many people’s lives quite a lot”.

He continued: “What is hugely encouraging here is the size of the treatment effects - it is really very large.”