Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Virtual therapy "helps with depression", researchers say

image of the avatars

There is a new therapy in which depressed people embody themselves in a virtual and graphical adult image. Then these patients will view an image of a crying child. In this therapy, patients have to wear a headset which will take them to a virtual reality mirror. In this mirror, there is a live adult image that patients will identify with, and that image will make all the movements and speak as if it was the patient. The role of the patient is to console and talk with a crying child to make her feel better. Then, when patients finish giving comfort to the child, the scientists will make some changes in patients’ headset so the roles will be reversed. Now, as a result of the headset change, the patients are embodied in the image of the child who is going to repeat back everything the patients said.


An experiment was conducted with 15 patients, between the ages of 23-61 years old. Ten of these patients were female and the rest were male and all of them were being treated by the National Health Service (NHS) for depression. The results were positive because nine of the people in the experiment said that their level of depression decreased a month later. Professor Brewin, a lead author of this study, said that through this therapy depressed patients are educated to be kinder and less self-critical of themselves.



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