Some phobias, for instance, can be effectively treated by gradually exposing a patient to his or her worst fear, be it spiders, plane travel or small, enclosed spaces. <\/p>\n
TeleSoftas, a Lithuanian firm that develops mobile apps, believes this exposure therapy can easily be achieved from the safety of a health professional's consulting room using the headsets. <\/p>\n
\"With virtual reality you can create audiovisual therapies in a safe environment for phobics,\" its CEO Algirdas Stonys told AFP at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the phone industry's largest annual trade fair. <\/p>\n
So for instance, someone who is scared of speaking in public would find himself in front of a room full of people, virtually. <\/p>\n
TeleSoftas has just received EU funding to finance the development of mental health apps for virtual reality headsets, in collaboration with academics. <\/p>\n
Psious, a Spanish start-up, is also in a similar field. <\/p>\n
Exposure therapies are designed to encourage the individual to enter feared situations, either in the real world or through imagined exercises. <\/p>\n
\"But we thought that in this digital age, there had to be something more,\" said CEO Xavier Palomer Ripoll. <\/p>\n
Created three years ago because one of its founders was scared of flying, the firm develops apps for psychotherapists who can download them and use them on virtual reality headsets. <\/p>\n
The doctor then choses an adequate environment. <\/p>\n
For instance, once kitted out with the headset, a person with vertigo will find him- or herself in a lift going up or down a skyscraper. <\/p>\n
Using a computer, the psychotherapist can propel the lift higher and higher, or make the floor transparent to increase the difficulty of the exercise. <\/p>\n
They can also gauge how well the patient is doing by seeing for example if they are able to look down. <\/p>\n
Psious raised close to a million euros ($1.1 million) in 2015, and provides the technology to some 600 doctors, mostly in Spain. <\/p>\n
In parallel, it is currently going through nine clinical trials with universities to get long-term efficacy data. <\/p>\n
TeleSoftas, meanwhile, hopes to eventually be able to offer virtual environments to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders, post-traumatic syndromes, alcoholism or smoking. <\/p>\n
Several American start-ups are working on these kinds of applications as well. <\/p>\n
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Virtual reality hopes to treat mental health problems - Times LIVE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some phobias, for instance, can be effectively treated by gradually exposing a patient to his or her worst fear, be it spiders, plane travel or small, enclosed spaces. TeleSoftas, a Lithuanian firm that develops mobile apps, believes this exposure therapy can easily be achieved from the safety of a health professional's consulting room using the headsets. \"With virtual reality you can create audiovisual therapies in a safe environment for phobics,\" its CEO Algirdas Stonys told AFP at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the phone industry's largest annual trade fair Continue reading