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VR-assisted therapy
The team of researchers, headed by Philip Lindner, selected 20 patients with both public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder for the study. Supervised by a clinical psychologist, the participants had a three-hour VR-assisted therapy session, which drew upon cognitive-behavioral techniques to target catastrophic thoughts and beliefs with exposure exercises. In the sessions, patients used VR technology to perform speaking exercises in front of a virtual audience. Each patient’s VR experience was tailored to their unique needs with the environment, audience mood, and audience behaviors customizable. After their public speeches, patients were able to take a place in the virtual audience and watch back their own performance.
Encouraging results
After the VR-assisted therapy sessions, the patients reported a significant decrease in public speaking anxiety. The results reinforced the belief that exposure therapy works by reducing patients’ fear of negative evaluation and catastrophic beliefs. Exposure therapy, a subset of CBT, works by directly exposing patients to their fears in a safe environment. For example, exposure therapy for thalassophobia (fear of the ocean) involves showing the patients images or videos of the ocean. Eventually, the patient may visit the beach with their therapist to help reduce their fears over time. Patients may also work on strengthening their water confidence, knowledge and skills to minimize their risk of accidental drowning. The use of lifejackets alone can prevent as many as half of all boating deaths, and increasing knowledge in water safety can further improve confidence.
Disproving catastrophic beliefs
From the study, Lindner and fellow researchers also found that patients gave their speech performances a higher rating after watching the playback. “The significant but weak decrease in fear of negative evaluation found in the current study supports the hypothesis that virtual reality exposure therapy for PSA works primarily by disproving catastrophic beliefs about one’s own performance and display of physiological symptoms, rather than how one is perceived by others,” the researchers commented. One of the stand-out findings of the study is that regular clinicians with minimal training are capable of leading VR-assisted therapy sessions to help patients.
Ultimately, the study’s findings show great promise for improving the treatment of public speaking anxiety and other mental health conditions. The researchers want future studies to include larger samples and comparison groups.