A patient with depression puts on a virtual reality headset, sees their own body replaced by a life-sized avatar, and then delivers compassion to that avatar—before experiencing the same interaction from the avatar’s perspective. This matters because depression is often driven by intense self-criticism and a lack of self-compassion. Conventional therapy to build self-compassion is slow and expensive. In an earlier open trial with 15 patients, just three 8-minute virtual reality sessions significantly reduced depression and self-criticism over the following month. The researchers will now scale this into a four-session treatment, adding technical improvements and a homework component. Over the next 18 months, they will test it in a feasibility study to assess recruitment, acceptability, and ease of delivery, and to estimate effect size. A two-year effectiveness trial will then run within an existing NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service, delivered by psychological wellbeing practitioners. If successful, the team will work with commercial partners to embed the intervention into other NHS services. The approach could be particularly attractive to under-served groups such as adolescents, and may pave the way for a new generation of virtual reality treatments that use embodiment to change how patients experience themselves.
View original technical description
Depression is usually maintained by high levels of self-criticism and poor self-compassion but enhancing of self-compassion via conventional face-to-face therapy is time consuming and expensive. Previously we developed a new form of intervention that exploits a property of immersive virtual reality (IVR). Embodiment' visually substitutes a person's real body with a life-sized virtual one and generates an illusion of ownership such that events happening to the virtual body are experienced as happening to the self. We enabled patients to deliver compassion to an avatar and then to experience that interaction from a first-person perspective. In an open trial with 15 patients with depression, three 8-minute IVR experiences brought about a significant decrease in depression and self-criticism over the next month. In Year 1 we will scale up our IVR scenario into a 4-session treatment for depression that takes advantage of technical innovations, responds to patients need for a more flexible and lifelike experience, and incorporates a homework element to ensure generalisability. Over the next 18 months the new treatment will then be tested in a feasibility study that will address issues of recruitment, acceptability, and ease of delivery, will test the proposed mechanism, and will generate an estimate of effect size to power an effectiveness trial. A 2-year effectiveness trial will then be implemented within an existing NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service by psychological wellbeing practitioners and will determine the extent of clinical improvement associated with the new intervention. Together with our commercial partners we will then seek to embed the intervention into other NHS services. We anticipate that the project will pave the way for a new generation of IVR interventions that use embodiment to change the way patients experience themselves and their bodies, and that will be particularly attractive to under-served groups such as adolescents.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know