Virtual reality therapy: Sci-fi in the doctor’s office

The virtual reality trend has been a fixture of the gaming world for over decade now. But more recently, the medical world has come to view virtual reality, or VR, as an unexplored avenue for therapy.

And innovation is sorely necessary as according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health one in two Canadians will have or have had a mental illness by the age of 40. That is a staggering number of people.

With this in mind, and with guidance from Seneca’s HELIX program, Navun Razdan pitched Unvrap.

Unvrap is an VR therapy enterprise that focuses on teaching cognitive behavioral therapy, a method of treatment that focuses on learning helpful thought patterns to combat anxiety, depression, phobias etc.

The way in which virtual reality will be used to address mental health issues is relatively simple, the patient puts on the VR headset and is subject to what is commonly known as immersion therapy; direct exposure to whatever trigger the patient is trying to conquer.

For example, if a patient has a chronic fear of spiders, they would use the VR headset to immerse themselves in a world populated by spiders.

While this would be jarring for most arachnophobes, the very fact that its virtual (aka not real) would allow the patient to desensitize themselves to their fear.

Razdan saw potential in VR therapy when he realized he could: “[…] use VR to improve the immersiveness and realisticness of what is visible to the client and the therapist.”

He has reason to be see potential as well.

A far-reaching review of 18 articles done by MDPI, a publisher of scientific journals, shows that VR therapy improved on nearly all phobias such as animal and injection fears.

But what about more severe mental illnesses? For example, combat related PTSD? The VR therapy model is successful in tackling that, the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2019 showed that VR therapy had a moderately positive effect on PTSD.

Now this VR technology certainly gives the impression of a space age therapist’s office, but what are the drawbacks? Well, as with most things, it’s the cost that could be prohibitive.

Besides the potential cost of private therapy sessions, a budget friendly VR headset (the Meta Quest 3 for example) starts at $399.

While this isn’t Rockerfeller money, it certainly provides a challenge for those in a lower income bracket.

As research done by the CAMH points out, the lowest income earners in Canada are upwards of 4 times as likely to be have poor mental health.

It certainly presents a catch 22 scenario.

Impoverished people need therapy the most, yet their very poverty is what prohibits them from accessing it.

Furthermore, when speaking with freelance journalist and Tech It Out host Marc Saltzman, he pointed other potential barriers like tech illiteracy:

“You have to be comfortable enough in using technology. What if you have legitimate issues and you need to see a therapist about it, but you’re, you know, you’re all thumbs when it comes to technology? That’s not going to be good…”

Despite these and other potential issues, Navun Razdan is making headway to achieving his goals of making the medical world take notice of VR therapy:

 

“I would like to then proceed to clinical trials to test the effectiveness of the software and make sure that it’s safe to use. And after that I think I would be more confident and basically raising funding. Having that empirical evidence that yes, this is clinically sound and can be used to treat phobic patients.”

What is certain is that therapy has come a long way from pipe smoking Sigmund Freud and the next generation of therapy might be more akin to a Playstation than a Rorschach test.