Latest news with #VRtherapy
Medscape
21-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Immersive 3D Therapy Effective for Voice Hallucinations?
TOPLINE: An immersive virtual reality (VR)-assisted therapy known as Challenge-VRT was associated with a greater reduction in severity and frequency of auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia than enhanced treatment as usual, a new randomized study showed. METHODOLOGY: This randomized parallel-group trial was conducted between 2020 and 2023 across three Danish regions and included adult patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (mean age, 33 years; 61% women) who experienced auditory verbal hallucinations for 3 or more months. On average, the patients experienced these voices for 15 years. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either seven weekly sessions plus two booster sessions of Challenge-VRT (n = 140) or matching enhanced treatment as usual (control group; n = 131). Challenge-VRT used a VR avatar of the patient's voice to guide them through phases of empowerment, self-worth development, and recovery while they wore a head-mounted display and engaged in a 3D environment. The primary outcome was clinician-rated severity of auditory verbal hallucinations, as measured by the Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scales-Auditory Hallucinations (PSYRATS-AH) total score at 12 weeks. Secondary outcomes included social functioning, the PSYRATS-AH-Frequency and Distress subscales, and the Voice Power Differential Scale. TAKEAWAY: Compared with the control group, the Challenge-VRT group had a significant reduction in severity of auditory verbal hallucinations (adjusted mean difference, -2.3; P = .03) at 12 weeks. The VR group also showed a significant reduction in hallucination frequency at 12 (P = .02) and 24 (P = .03) weeks. Other secondary outcomes did not differ significantly between the groups. Challenge-VRT was generally well-tolerated, with a 79% completion rate for all seven weekly sessions. Although 37% of participants reported increased hallucination symptoms after the first three sessions, the frequency decreased after the fourth session and continued declining until the end of the study. Serious adverse events potentially related to the VR treatment included five cases of hospital admission due to exacerbation of auditory verbal hallucinations and one episode of self-harm. Additionally, women had higher rates of psychiatric admissions and higher simulation sickness scores than men. IN PRACTICE: 'Challenge-VRT showed short-term efficacy in reducing the severity of auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia, and the findings support further development and evaluation of immersive virtual reality-based therapies in this population,' the investigators wrote. However, Mark Hayward, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, noted several concerns in an accompanying editorial, including about how to effectively train clinicians to deliver this therapy and why the outcomes weren't sustainable. He also questioned whether a 3D immersive environment is superior to a 2D environment, such as watching something on a computer screen. 'The findings from the Challenge trial suggest that 3D does not add value to avatar therapy. If people with psychosis who are distressed by hearing voices are to build sustainable momentum for their recovery journeys, some of the remaining questions about avatar therapy need to be addressed,' Hayward wrote. SOURCE: The study was led by Lisa Charlotte Smith, PhD, Mental Health Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. It was published online on July 2 in The Lancet Psychiatry. LIMITATIONS: The control group received counseling without a structured treatment manual or formal quality assessment, making direct comparison with Challenge-VRT challenging. Hospitalization data were incomplete, and frequent but undocumented technical problems with the VR system remained unassessed. Key outcome scales were also unreliable or inapplicable for subgroups. Additionally, the real-world sample underrepresented ethnic diversity, and the use of a therapist-controlled, immersive avatar raised ethical concerns about informed consent and off-session effects. DISCLOSURES: The study was funded by The Innovation Fund Denmark, Independent Research Fund Denmark, Innovation Fund North Denmark Region, Psychiatry Research Fund North Denmark Region, and The M L Jørgensen and Gunnar Hansen Fund. Four of the 13 investigators reported having financial ties and research collaborations with Heka VR, who provided the software, and other sources. Full details are provided in the original article. The other investigators and the editorialist reported having no relevant conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Devon hospital's virtual reality therapy 'helps cut chronic pain'
A hospital in Devon has been demonstrating new technology which is helping patients manage long-term chronic pain in a different way from medication virtual reality (VR) immersive therapy at Torbay Hospital involved patients stepping into another world and moving in ways where they were not concentrating on the pain, staff Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust has been offering the therapy to patients as an eight-week patients who had been using the VR system by Cureo said they had seen in improvement in the way they moved and had reduced their pain medication. Physiotherapist Phillipa Newton-Cross, the service lead for the pain rehabilitation team, said: "Working with pain is like trying to work with a central nervous system that is on high alert and hot-wired and alarmed all the time."It's really difficult to move when you are like that." "Learning these smooth calming skills allows you to work with your pain system less in a high alert fight-or-flight response."That's enough that you'll find that they [patients] can then manage to do better with conventional exercise."The team was awarded £29,000 from the NHS trust's League of Friends to support a clinical rehabilitation pathway using virtual reality Malpas is a patient with progressive myopathy who has problems moving his neck. He has completed an eight-week programme of therapy said: "It enabled me to move my body in different ways that I didn't know how to."I can't look left and right because of my neck being so pinned up and the pain."They managed to work out some different muscles in my body that I can use. So I can turn my body left and turn my body wife Claire said: "When we first started, I thought: 'It's no going to do much.' "But, after eight weeks and the input from all of the staff at the unit, the progression to moving more easily was astounding."I couldn't believe what I was seeing." Stuart Spray has chronic pain and has been taking painkillers for 23 years, ending up on the highest dose of codeine that could be attending the sessions, he said he had stopped taking codeine and was feeling a lot healthier than said: "My mind has to be occupied; that's the way am, I have to be analysing constantly. "When I put one of these headsets on, I just disappear. I'm more concerned about me now than solving the problem. I came off codeine three months ago completely." Since its introduction, 50 patients have used the system in south Devon. This particular software has been available in other countries since 2017, but Torbay's pain team is understood to be the first to use it in the UK.
