After years of living with crippling fears, patients are getting relief after six weeks of treatment – how?
We are all scared of something. It may be spiders, climbing ladders or walking into a party where you don’t know anyone. Life is full of uncomfortable situations. But when your fear goes from discomfort to impairing the way you function through life, you now have a phobia.
Phobias are one of the most common mental disorders in the US, with around 10% of the population reporting specific phobia, an intense and irrational fear that presents little or no danger.
Participants in a recent study used a new app, oVRcome, which utilizes VR exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The self-guided six-week program has a very high success rate for helping people address their phobias.
The results, published in the Australia & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, showed a 75% reduction in phobia symptoms after the six-week treatment program. After this time, some of the participants felt comfortable facing their fears in real life.
This is a major step forward for treatments that are often too costly or otherwise inaccessible to help people with this often debilitating condition. The study’s authors noted that the VR treatments used had been heavily researched, rigorously peer reviewed, and clinically proven to be effective.
