Therapeutic use of virtual reality relaxation in schizophrenia: a pilot study

AbstractIn recent years, virtual reality (VR) has been effectively employed in several settings, ranging from health care needs to leisure and gaming activities. A new application of virtual stimuli appeared in social media: in the documentary ‘I met you’ from the South-Korean Munhwa Broadcasting, a mother made the experience of interacting with the avatar of the seven-year-old daughter, who died four years before. We think that this new application of virtual stimuli should open a debate on its possible implications: it represents contents related to grief, a dramatic and yet natural experience, that can have deep psychological impacts on fragile subjects put in virtual environments. In the present work, possible side-effects, as well as hypothetical therapeutical application of VR for the treatment of mourning, are discussed.

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Interactive Virtual Reality Assessment of Aggressive Social Information Processing in Boys with Behavior Problems: A Pilot Study

Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy ◽

10.1002/cpp.2620 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rogier E. J. Verhoef ◽

Anouk van Dijk ◽

Esmée E. Verhulp ◽

Bram O. de Castro

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Information Processing ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Behavior Problems ◽

Social Information Processing ◽

Social Information

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Analysis of motor performance in individuals with cerebral palsy using a non-immersive virtual reality task – a pilot study

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment ◽

10.2147/ndt.s184510 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol Volume 15 ◽

pp. 417-428 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fabiana Martins ◽

Thaís Massetti ◽

Tania Crocetta ◽

Priscila Bianchi Lopes ◽

Amanda da Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Motor Performance ◽

Immersive Virtual Reality

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Promoting Psychological Health in Women with SCI: A Pilot Study of a Virtual-Reality Intervention Program

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation ◽

10.1016/j.apmr.2016.08.238 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 97 (10) ◽

pp. e78

Author(s):

Susan Robinson-Whelen ◽

Rosemary B. Hughes ◽

Heather B. Taylor ◽

Margaret A. Nosek

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Intervention Program

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A Virtual Reality Version of the Trier Social Stress Test: A Pilot Study

Presence Teleoperators & Virtual Environments ◽

10.1162/pres_a_00052 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 325-336 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Mattias Wallergård ◽

Peter Jönsson ◽

Gerd Johansson ◽

Björn Karlson

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Stress Response ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Physiological Data ◽

Virtual Humans ◽

Arithmetic Task

One of the most common methods of inducing stress in the laboratory in order to examine the stress response in healthy and clinical populations is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Briefly, the participant is asked to deliver a speech and to perform an arithmetic task in front of an evaluating committee. The committee, consisting of three trained actors, does not respond emotionally during the test, which makes the situation very stressful for the participant. One disadvantage of the TSST is that it can be difficult to hold the experimental conditions constant. In particular, it may be difficult for actors to hold their acting constant across all sessions. Furthermore, there are several practical problems and costs associated with hiring professional actors. A computerized version of the TSST using virtual humans could be a way to avoid these problems provided that it is able to induce a stress response similar to the one of the original TSST. The purpose of the present pilot study was therefore to investigate the stress response to a virtual reality (VR) version of the TSST visualized using an immersive VR system (VR-TSST). Seven healthy males with an average age of 24 years (range: 23–26 years) performed the VR-TSST. This included delivering a speech and performing an arithmetic task in front of an evaluating committee consisting of three virtual humans. The VR equipment was a CAVE equipped with stereoscopy and head tracking. ECG and respiration were recorded as well as the participant's behavior and comments. Afterward, a semi-structured interview was carried out. In general, the subjective and physiological data from the experiment indicated that the VR version of the TSST induced a stress response in the seven participants. In particular, the peak increase in heart rate was close to rates observed in studies using the traditional TSST with real actors. These results suggest that virtual humans visualized with an immersive VR system can be used to induce stress under laboratory conditions.

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