(February 15, 2016) An
immersive virtual reality therapy could help people with depression to be less
critical and more compassionate towards themselves, reducing depressive
symptoms, finds a new study from UCL and ICREA-University of Barcelona.
The therapy, previously tested by healthy volunteers, was
used by 15 depression patients aged 23-61. Nine reported reduced depressive
symptoms a month after the therapy, of whom four experienced a clinically
significant drop in depression severity. The study is published in the British
Journal of Psychiatry Open and was funded by the Medical Research Council.
Patients in the study wore a virtual reality headset to see
from the perspective of a life-size ‘avatar’ or virtual body. Seeing this
virtual body in a mirror moving in the same way as their own body typically
produces the illusion that this is their own body. This is called ‘embodiment’.
While embodied in an adult avatar, participants were trained
to express compassion towards a distressed virtual child. As they talked to the
child it appeared to gradually stop crying and respond positively to the
compassion. After a few minutes the patients were embodied in the virtual child
and saw the adult avatar deliver their own compassionate words and gestures to
them. This brief 8-minute scenario was repeated three times at weekly
intervals, and patients were followed up a month later.