Virtual reality aid for schizophrenia
The device mimics hallucinations
BBC News Online June 26, 2002
Showing schizophrenic patients "virtual reality" hallucinations, could help
convince them their own hallucinations are not real, scientists believe.
The psychiatrists who devised the technique believe it could show them they have
a condition which requires treatment.
UK mental health experts said using virtual hallucinations on vulnerable
patients was interesting, but required caution.
But they said it could be useful in showing relatives and careers what
schizophrenia is like.
The virtual hallucinations have the same sights and sounds a patient would see
in a real one - such as hearing the TV tell them to kill themselves, walls
closing in or one person's face morphing into another, with an abusive running
commentary.
One in 10 people with schizophrenia is eventually driven to suicide.
Researchers from the University of Queensland in Brisbane have built a prototype
3D virtual reality simulation, which they say could be used to help patients
confront their psychoses when drug therapy fails.
They say it could work in the same way as using virtual reality to help people
get over phobias about spiders or heights.
The simulator has a wrap-around screen onto which an image of a typical living
room is projected.
It can be changed to replicate common hallucinations.
Frightening
The researchers, led by Dr Peter Yellowlees, a psychiatrist at the University
of Queensland, are now attempting to recreate the hallucinations experienced by
a woman whose schizophrenia is now under control.
The next step will be to use virtual reality in a treatment program for
patients.
Dr Yellowlees has already used video-conferencing to treat schizophrenic
patients in remote parts of Australia.
He admits some patients may find the virtual hallucinations frightening, but is
optimistic many will be able to distinguish between real hallucinations and the
virtual ones.
Andy Dennison, a member of the research team, said it is hoped it will
eventually be possible to model the hallucinations on environments relevant to
each patient.
"They would bring us a few photos and we would build a virtual model of their
sitting room or a hospital environment," he said.
Courage
Paul Corry of the UK's National Schizophrenia Fellowship told BBC News
Online: "This is an exciting development and shows how modern technological
breakthroughs can be applied to severe mental illness, a health area often
overlooked by researchers.
"Its application would need to be carefully monitored as people with
schizophrenia whose thoughts are already disturbed, may find the experience of
another altered reality troubling."
He added: "One area where it could be introduced immediately is in tackling the
public's prejudice, ignorance and fear of severe mental illness.
"This 3D 'virtual' experience would allow the public to rethink their attitudes
to people who live with hallucinations and to appreciate the courage of the very
many people with schizophrenia who are able to recover a meaningful and
fulfilling life."
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_2066000/2066973.stm
Aussie schizophrenia treatment
www.News.Com.AU June 27, 2002
AUSTRALIAN psychiatrists have developed a virtual reality environment that
recreates schizophrenic hallucinations in an attempt to convince patients that
their hallucinations are not real.
They plan to show patients that they suffer from an illness that requires
treatment, and hope they can teach them to ignore hallucinations in real life
when drug therapy fails, New Scientist magazine reports.
Virtual reality is already being used to help patients with phobias about
spiders or heights.
But using it to recreate psychotic hallucinations, including patients hearing
their TV sets instructing them to kill themselves or seeing inanimate objects
morphing into faces or people, is unprecedented.
One in 10 schizophrenics eventually commits suicide.
"Any attempt to help people to monitor, recognize and create strategies to deal
with their hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms in a controlled
environment is good," David Castle, of Melbourne's Mental Health Research
Institute, said.
University of Queensland psychiatrist Peter Yellowlees and his team have built a
prototype 3D virtual reality simulation that shows a typical living room
projected onto a wraparound screen.
The virtual setting can be modified to mimic common hallucinations by making the
walls appear to be closing in, photographs of one person's face morphing into
another's, and straight lines such as the edge of picture frames wobbling.
At the same time, a soundtrack gives an abusive running commentary, typical of
many schizophrenic hallucinations.
The prototype is helping doctors and relatives get a better understanding of the
disorder.
"It's early days. Some of the psychosis depicted is not as florid and as lucid
as some people see, but it helps you realize what a person with mental illness
is going through," Schizophrenia Fellowship of South Queensland president Peter
Darling said.
Dr Yellowlees admits some patients might find the virtual hallucinations
frightening but he is optimistic that many will be able to distinguish between
their own hallucinations and the virtual ones.
Eventually, the researchers plan to tailor the hallucinations to individual
patients.
"They would bring us a few photos and we would build a virtual model of their
sitting room or a hospital environment," team member Andy Dennison said.
Source:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4588535%255E1702,00.html
Virtual Reality Helps Schizophrenia Patients
Reuters June 27, 2002
LONDON (Reuters) - Australian scientists are using virtual reality to conjure up
demons plaguing schizophrenia patients to help them realize they are not real.
By confronting the psychoses, staff at the Mental Health Research Institute in
Melbourne and the University of Queensland in Brisbane hope patients will be
better able to deal with their hallucinations and ignore them.
"Any attempt to help people monitor, recognize and create strategies to deal
with their hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms in a controlled
environment is good," David Castle, one of the researchers, told New Scientist
magazine.
A prototype 3D virtual reality simulation depicts a living room that mimics
common hallucinations -- walls that close in, picture frames that wobble, faces
that morph into each other -- and an equally disturbing soundtrack.
"The prototype is already helping doctors and relatives of people with
schizophrenia get a better understanding of the disorder," according to the
magazine.
Although it may be too frightening for some patients, the scientists think it
has great potential. In the future they hope to create models that mimic the
patient's own environment, so the hospital or living room will be one they are
familiar with.
Source:
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