An article published in the in April of this year has revealed some interesting res൩ults, suggesting that virtual reality could help in the treatment of obsessive-compulsiv🎃e disorder (OCD).
OCD affects approximately 1 in 40𒅌 adults in the United States, and interestingly, worldwide it is in people between the ages of 15 and 44 years.
OCD Defined
"OCD" is one of tho🐟se concepts thrown around colloquially to describe any character trait that's remotely related to being organized, or preferring something to be done in a certain way. It can, however, be a very serious and debilitating mental illness for many people.
In extreme cases, OCD - which is characterized by combinations of intrusive, obsessive thoughts, and compulsive behaviors in response to those thoughts - can demand . Often those hours will be spent performing repetitive actions or rituals in an attempt to ease the obsessive impulses felt, and som🦄etimes this will lead to immense distress.
This considered, there are many efforts that have been poured into identifying better means of treating OCD. So, seeing as VR is already being used in the treatment of phobias and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:schizophrenia, why not try it out for OCD too?
How Is OCD Treated?
One of the most effecti♌ve ways of treating OCD is through . Essentially, that involves gradually and repeatedly exposing a patient in a controlled, safe therapeutic environment to situations or things t✃hat trigger their OCD. The therapist and patient then work together to suppress the latter's compulsions, over time reducing their urge to do so in their daily life.
A Study Of OCD
That's exactly what Mujga🌞n Inozu and fellow researchers wanted to study in . As with most mental disorders, there are of course many different forms that OCD can manifest itself as. However, Inozu and co. were particularly interested in looking at the most common symptom - fear of contamination, and the accompanying urge to wash one's hands - which is found in about
The researchers noted that OCD with an accompꦰanying fear of contamination is , probably due to the multip✨le levels of emotions involved which include fear, anxiety, and disgust.
VR And OCD
So what exactly did the researchers do? The💟y took 21 people who exhibited high contamination fear, and 🧔implemented 25-45 minute exposure-based cognitive therapy sessions in VR - weekly for one month - with 9 of them (the rest remained as controls for the sake of comparison).
The therapy sessions involved donning a VR headset, which placed the person inside a virtual kitchen wherein they needed to carry out various mundane kitchen-related tasks. But gradually, the researchers increased the level of kitchen-dirtiness, with the aim of prodding at that fear of contamination a bit more each time. Particip🔥ants were asked to rate their levels of anxiety, disgust, and urge to wash their hands throughout the process.
Indeed, the researchers did observe that those who received a minimum of three VR therapy sessions reported significantly lower anxiety, disgust, and urge to wash their hands th🗹an those who did not receive the VR tಞreatment.
VR Versus Tradition
VR as a way of treating mental disorders is gaining ever more attention as the tech becomes more streamlined. A handful of studies comparing VR treatment to more traditional therapeutic methods 𓂃(say, involving exposure to real-life anxiety-inducing situations, or merely sitting in a therapy session imagining such situations) give similarly promising results.
Some such resu💞lts reveal that VR is as good as r🧜eal-life or imaginary exposure, if not better.
VR-based treatment provides a kind of middle ground between these two a🌼lternatives. It's more realistic than that which mere mental im♐agery will allow, but is also generally , and can be implemented in a more convenient, controlled environment.
VR: The Future Of OCD Treatment?
This really is an encouraging track we find ourselves on. However, as always, we must acknowledge the limitations of any scientific evidence before we get too excited. For example, this study only looked at 21 people - a number 🌼way too tiny to be able to conclude anything conclusively.
And as with anything in VR, it's still early days. This means that there are still very few formal stud♒ies on the use of VR treatment for OCD out there, and more will need to be performed to bulk up these promising findings. Still, promising findings they are, and we ho𝔉pe to see many more similar efforts being made as VR usage continues to grow.
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