Can VR Effectively Treat Patients With PTSD and Anxiety Disorders?

Written by: Arik Yates PTA

Virtual Reality is a vast Landscape.; anything can be created within virtual reality to simulate, engage, and entertain the user. The only limiting factor is the designer's imagination. One particular use case showing the flexibility of virtual reality that may not be known is PTSD and Anxiety Disorders.

PTSD

Describes a mental health ailment that is acquired after a life-threatening event has been experienced. Some examples include, military combat, being caught in a natural disaster, witnessing or being on the receiving end of a robbery, etc. Provocations of symptoms usually occur when in high stress environments and can lead to irritability, “feeling on the edge”, insomnia, and outbursts. Take note though, it is normal for these symptoms to take place after an extreme event, but it is when they PERSIST that one may be suffering from PTSD.

Is There An Effective Treatment?

Over the past 2 decades, researchers and clinicians have been using virtual reality for exposure therapy to aid in the recovery of patients with PTSD. Exposure therapy basically exposes the patient towards their phobias, fears, and stressors until their symptom provocation is reduced.

Normally, exposure therapy is performed safely, but in life-like simulation with actors reenacting certain situations that the patient may or may not have gone through. These simulations are reenacted continually which at times can be a heavy burden due to the set up and the amount of people required to ensure an immersive experience is created each time.

With the use of Virtual Reality, this burdensome, continual set up and performance is eliminated. This means that there are greater chances for the situation to remain the same due to being free from human error. Also, using virtual reality allows the simulation to be changed in real time either through the computer that the headset is connected to or even using a tablet that is connected to the headset. This allows for stronger sensory stimuli to be administered on the fly without waiting times or having to prepare actors. This allows  military personnel and victims of various crimes

In a randomized controlled trial published in March of 2014, researchers compared and contrasted the efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy to conventional exposure therapy. In the trial, ”self-reports of PTSD, depression, and anxiety before and after treatment, and also examined neuropsychological functioning as assessed by a computerized test of simple reaction time, procedural reaction time, and performance on the congruent, incongruent, emotional, and neutral (match the color of the "nonsense word") Stroop tests'' were examined and compared to their non VR counterparts.

The result was that virtual reality was just as efficient as non VR exposure therapy. On top of that, the results showed “significant reductions in PTSD” as well as decreased “anxiety severity” and improved emotional stroop test. 

Other Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders come in various shapes and forms, but they all present with debilitating anxiety, making certain everyday situations intolerable. Some of the disorders include Agoraphobia, anxiety secondary to a medical condition, panic disorder, elective mutism, and  separation anxiety disorder, and more.

Most treatments can consist of seeing specialized therapists, speech therapy (selective mutism), or medication, however VR is also being used to assist in alleviating anxiety. Much like with PTSD, exposure therapy within virtual reality is used to continually expose the user until anxiety begins to decrease. Rather it be a food/body image disorder or even being stressed or having anxiety due to an upcoming surgery, virtual reality is being tailored to these specific issues with the need of large test facilities; everything is experienced from behind the lenses of a headset. In a 2017 published study, researchers stated “Overall, meta-analyses have indicated that VR is an efficacious tool, compares favorably to comparison conditions, and has lasting effects that generalize to the real world”.

Conclusion

Both PTSD and Anxiety Disorders being treated from within virtual reality with the same and slightly better results is another item to the long list of positives that can be attained when this technology is used in health care. With the seriousness of mental health in this day and age, I hope this brings you comfort and gives you hope in the increased accessibility of treatments.