Scientists have found Patients suffering from depression could get benefited from virtual reality therapy in which they give advice to a crying child.
Professor Chris Brewin, lead author of the study, said the results were promising and patients had described the experience as “very powerful”. “The aim was to teach patients to be more compassionate towards themselves and less self-critical.”
“People who struggle with anxiety and depression can be excessively self-critical when things go wrong in their lives,” he told the BBC.
“In this study, by comforting the child and then hearing their own words back, patients are indirectly giving themselves compassion.”
Virtual Reality has previously recommended for its ability in treating phantom limb pain suffered by amputees. Report co author Mel Slater said that more work had to be done in determining the symptoms of virtual therapy patients suffering from depression. Slater further said that “We are hoping to develop a technique further to conduct a large controlled trial, so that we can confidently determine any clinical benefit”.
The patients were instructed to comfort the child by speaking kindly to them using validation, redirection of attention, such as asking them to think of a person that loved them and recall the time when they were happy.
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