Virtual reality therapy in the care management of anxiety disoders

Abstract

Note: This article is a reproduction of the original in French: Levy F, Rauttureau G, Jouvent R. La thérapie par la réalité virtuelle dans la prize en charge des troubles anxieux. L'Information Psychiatrique, 2017; 93 (8): 660-3, kindly provided to Vertex by the management of L'Information Psychiatrique.

Virtual reality involves the creation of an interactive three- dimensional virtual world which the user can navigate. This technology is proposed for anxiet  disorders as an alternative to the in vivo and imaginative exposure provided in cognitive behavioral therapy, the gold standard psychoterapeutic treatment for this pathology. According to a significant number of publications including meta-analysis, virtual reality therapy exposure is at least equivalent to in vivo exposure in specific phobias, panic disorder with agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress disorder and social phobia. A fundamental feature of the virtual experience is presence, which is commonly defined as the mental experience of «being there», in the virtual world. This concept prompts us to consider virtual reality a therapy beyond exposition, more like an embodied therapy.