Limbix is building up immersive content that therapists can use to treat phobias, depression and anxiety.

There are over 300 peer-reviewed studies that show VR is an effective tool for treating mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction.

It’s no wonder, therefore, to see a host of companies developing therapeutic content that leverages immersive technology. From helping passengers chill out during long-haul flights to AI-powered virtual therapists, this is a very promising space indeed.

It’s no wonder we're seeing a host of companies developing therapeutic content leveraging immersive technology
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There are over 300 peer-reviewed studies that show VR is an effective tool for treating mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction
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One such company is Limbix, which has been collaborating with experts through academic research partnerships to create content for use by therapists in a broad range of applications such as Exposure Therapy, Mindfulness, Experiential Education and Skills Training.

They raised $3M in funding so far in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Since then, the Palo Alto-based company has managed to establish an impressive host of partnerships with high-profile organizations and researchers to guide their content creation process and document the efficiency of the VR experiences they set out to create.

“After over a year of research and interviews, we have not only confirmed interest in VR but also learned there are opportunities for the technology to support therapy and patient care in other ways,” says Elise Ogle, a researcher who previously worked at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, designing experiences such as the highly acclaimed Becoming Homeless, before taking on her current role as Program Manager at Limbix earlier this year.

In the mental health space, Ogle explains, there are fundamental issues with access to care and stigma that can keep people from receiving the care that they need. “VR is an innovative technology that patients are excited to use and can serve as a tool that healthcare providers can use to improve patient care,” she adds.

Limbix has been collaborating with experts through academic research partnerships to create content for use by therapists
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One example of what this can look like is a project focusing on adolescent depression intervention, which came about when Harvard researchers found that web-based intervention methods could be very effective at decreasing depressive symptoms.

The researchers at the Laboratory for Youth Mental Health at Harvard then wanted to find out how VR intervention would compare to this, and partnered with Limbix – as well as researchers from other institutions such as the Mood Disorders Laboratory at University of Texas at Austin and the Lab for Scalable Mental Health at Sony Brook University – to develop an experience which, in a single-session, provides intervention by teaching the subjects to adopt a growth mind-set which has been found helpful in overcoming depression.

Researchers at the Laboratory for Youth Mental Health at Harvard wanted to find out how VR would compare to web-based intervention
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“The goal of this experience is not only to bring insight into depression — and let adolescents know they aren’t alone in their struggles — but also to teach adolescents how to process and work through their feelings and challenges,” says Ogle, explaining that they are now nearly finished with obtaining IRB approval and will be starting a clinical study early in the new year.

Another clinical study due to begin in January is led by Dr. Barr Taylor from Stanford University/Palo Alto University and Dr. Michelle Newman from Penn State, who were also using VR as a part of exposure therapy treatment for patients with social anxiety.

“We focused on 2 different types of social scenarios that a person with social anxiety would likely have to experience in person, but could benefit from exposure to and practice with these situations in VR. In these scenarios, as they practice interacting with others in these social situations, they will learn to process their feelings of anxiety,” says Ogle.

Patients in the VR therapy group will be exposed to scenarios ordered according to their own personal ‘fear hierarchy’ by working their way from what makes them least anxious, then gradually upping the tension to what makes them most anxious.

As they practice interacting with others in social situations, patients learn to process their feelings of anxiety
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Patients in the VR therapy group will be exposed to scenarios ordered according to their own personal ‘fear hierarchy’
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The two situations they initially designed were a job interview and a social gathering with strangers. For each situation they filmed a number of scenarios to be used by the researchers to build that fear hierarchy for each patient.

Examples of the first type of situation included answering tough questions in front of varying interviewers, participating in a group interview, and a more casual interview, while situation two required patients to get a stranger’s attention at a party, send food back they hadn’t ordered, and answer standard ‘getting to know you’ questions from a stranger. The plan is to continue building a comprehensive content library of VR experiences to aid the treatment of a broad spectrum of mental health disorders

As well as having health benefits, this immersive technology also represents a sizeable market opportunity
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The plan is to build a content library of VR experiences to aid the treatment of a broad spectrum of mental health disorders
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As well as the health benefits, this technology also represents a sizeable market opportunity, as it could be deployed across a range of patient care areas such as Behavioral Health Centers, Clinics, Addiction Treatment Centers, and even schools. Limbix have already started opening up product access to paying customers and will use their feedback to guide further development as they scale.

This article originally appeared on VRScout

Therapists Using VR To Treat Mental Health Issues via @alicebonasio https://t.co/iPi1ApezQw pic.twitter.com/4X3zJ34Plq

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 27, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Virtual Reality Improving Mental Health appeared first on Tech Trends.

A new project in Sweden is using VR technology to help hydrophobic children learn to swim.

Fear isn’t always such a bad thing. It is, after all, a self-preservation response programmed into our DNA that can be useful in keeping us out of harm’s way.

A new Swedish project is helping children overcome their phobia of swimming with VR
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When that fear is constant and irrational, however, it can become a crippling problem, and one that a whole lot of us struggle with every day. Nearly 25 million Americans report having the fear of flying phobia, and almost 9% of the adult population in the U.S. have at least one extreme specific fear.

This is a problem that interested Swedish Psychologist Philip Lindner, who believes that virtual reality can be the key to overcoming these irrational fears.

“If you experience something you are afraid of in VR, and you manage to stay in that situation despite the discomfort, then you have most likely lowered the barriers for trying it in real life,” he explains.

Lindner tested out this theory by exposing arachnophobic patients to their biggest fear: Big, hairy spiders – albeit virtual ones. The initial findings of the study were extremely encouraging, with even severely phobic patients reporting diminished anxiety, and they felt able to interact with increasingly realistic-looking creepy-crawlers.

“Via VR you can virtually recreate in detail a realistic and safe experience, where you can try and expose yourself to – and stay in a situation – that you feel is uncomfortable, so that you can experience that the discomfort actually disappears by itself. The things you thought would happen, most likely did not.”

The same principle of gradual immersion was applied – perhaps more literally – to his next project, The Power of Swimming, a partnership between the Swedish Swimming Federation, energy company E.ON, and M&C Saatchi Stockholm.

In a land full of lakes and surrounded by the sea, it’s perhaps surprising that one in five Swedish children can’s swim, so the project wanted to inspire young people who were nervous around water to overcome their fear and dive in.

Almost 9% of the adult population in the U.S. have at least one extreme specific fear
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Saatchi worked with production company Apartment5 to create a VR experience where hydrophobic children were introduced to three members of the Swedish swim team, who coached and guided them in a virtual swimming pool environment. During the second phase of the project, the children then met the same swimmers in the flesh, and began to swim in real life.

Early results seem to bode well for all sorts of therapeutic uses of Virtual Reality technology
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Gradual exposure to what makes you afraid (also known as desensitisation therapy) is acknowledged as the most effective way to treat phobias, yet depending on the type of phobia this is often challenging; A patient who experiences severe fear of flying, for example, would have to actually board a flight, and their reaction could well prove upsetting and dangerous not only for the patient but for fellow passengers.

Virtual Reality is a very effective delivery mechanism for desensitisation therapy
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In VR, however, this gradual exposure can be safely adjusted and controlled. In Dr Lindner’s spider experiment, for instance, patients first interacted with quite cartoon-like spiders, which eventually became more photo-realistic as the therapy progressed and their tolerance threshold increased.

The way that our brain naturally responds to Virtual Reality in similar or identical ways to real-world experiences means that the technology naturally lends itself to that kind of use. It might seem strange that virtual swimming can feel this realistic, yet anybody who tries VR for the first time will usually be surprised at how real it feels. I recently spoke to the team behind Google Expeditions, and they reported how children trying on the Great Barrier Reef experience would often instinctively hold their breath as they saw the water close in around them.

In VR, gradual exposure to what makes us afraid can be safely adjusted and controlled
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It was no different for the Swedish children taking part in the project: Even within a short period of immersion, the children’s response to water was completely changed, and many who were quite anxious to start with visibly started to have fun, saying things like: “I was in the water in a second,” “I think that’s what I want to do when I grow up,” and “It feels good to be under water now.”

Considering how VR is still very much in its infancy, these early results seem to bode well for a lot of therapeutic uses of the technology, which can only be good news for the millions of us who could use a helping hand in conquering our fears.

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Facing Down Your Fears with Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.