SAFE-VR

About phobias

Phobia represents an extreme, uncontrolled and irrational fear, triggered by various stimuli. Phobias are classified as follows: agoraphobia – fear of crowds, social phobias – fear of public speaking and specific phobias – caused by various situations and objects that lead to panic attacks and anxiety. Phobias express themselves through a series of physical symptoms – high pulse and high heart rate, sweating, dizziness and emotional symptoms – anxiety, panic, incapacity of controlling one’s fear despite a conscious effort.

13% of the world’s population suffers from a certain type of phobia: acrophobia (fear of height) – 7.5%, arachnophobia (fear of spiders) – 3.5% and aerophobia (fear of flying) – 2.6%. In the U.S., nearly 8.7% of people (aged 18 and over) have at least one extreme specific fear and nearly 25 million Americans report having the fear of flying. 10% of the U.S. population and 14% of the U.K. population suffer from acrophobia. Besides, 74% of the Americans manifest fear of public speaking, 30% arachnophobia and 2.5 % claustrophobia.
17% of the people suffering from phobias develop depression, treated either medically, with illegal drugs (17%) or alcohol (19%). Unfortunately, only 20% of the people affected by phobias take on therapy or ask for specialized help. A phobia occurs after witnessing a terrible situation or frightening event, due to a traumatic personal experience that happened in the past, a parent or a household member with a phobia that the child can “learn”. As a result, the body creates a protection mechanism in order to prevent the same situation from happening again. This defense mechanism is reflected in severe fear manifested by losing control and panic attacks. Sometimes, even if the subject remembers or not the traumatic experience, the phobia still persists. Phobias lead to depression and alter a person’s life quality if he is required to avoid a certain thing or a pleasant activity.

The treatment indicated in the case of phobias is either medical (pills) or psychological – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBT) that determine the patient to see in a different way the traumatic experience, through thought and behavior control, gradual exposure in-vivo to the object generating fear, in the presence of the therapist who monitors the procedure and adjusts the stimuli and exposure intensity. These therapies urge the patient to understand his fears and the factors that trigger anxiety and consequently find a solution to cope with this situation by changing the thoughts and attitude towards the stimuli causing phobia. Nearly 80% of the phobics find relief in medicines and CBT. However, treatment should be continued for as long as required since phobia statistics reveal that 50% of these people also tend to relapse. The medication prescribed includes anti-anxiety and anti-depressive drugs that alleviate anxiety symptoms like high heart rate, tachycardia or vertigo. However, they all have side effects, as they impair cognition and balance and lead to dependence.

An additional method for treating phobias is by using Virtual Reality (VR). VR has significantly emerged over the last years due to advances in science and technology. It is a simulation of the real world, allowing physical presence and ability to interact with the world, sense of sight, hearing and touch. VR can train phobic patients in ways that replicate real-world threatening environments on a gradual scale, being immersive, attractive and safe at the same time. Virtual reality exposure has the following advantages: immersion, safety, greater variety of environments that can be repeated, visual and auditory stimuli controlled by the therapist, flexibility, friendly environment, low costs. The intensity of exposure can be adapted to the patient’s needs and the environmental influences are insignificant. Moreover, physiological monitoring (pulse, heart rate, EEG signals) brings the benefits of behavioral-cognitive therapy, by assuming and managing reactions, in such way that the patient can control his attitude towards the object that causes fear.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) allows conducting exposure therapy in a computer-generated virtual environment. VRET has a strong real-life impact, good stability of results in time, equal to those obtained in CBT therapies and there is no difference in the dropout rate between the VR and in-vivo exposure.