A research team from the University of Queensland believe their new 3D prototype can convince patients that the hallucinations associated with schizophrenia are not "real experiences" but symptoms of an illness. It is hoped this will encourage patients to comply with treatment and teach them to ignore their hallucinations when drug therapy fails.
The 3D virtual-reality prototype uses state-of-the-art simulation of sounds and images replicated from schizophrenic episodes. It presents a simulated living room projected onto a wrap-around screen. Common schizophrenic hallucinations such as "walls closing in", and "photographs of one person's face morphing into another's" are recreated on the screen while the commentary takes the form of an abusive conversation (common in schizophrenic episodes).
The prototype also has the benefit of helping relatives and friends of sufferers gain a better understanding of what the patient is going through. Peter Yellowlees and colleagues who developed the prototype are planning to tailor the simulation by recreating the living environment of individual patients, incorporating their particular hallucinatory experiences. "They would bring us a few photos and we would build a virtual model of their sitting room or a hospital environment," explained Andy Dennison, a member of the research team. Gary Hogman from the National Schizophrenia Fellowship says the project is "very exciting" and "underpins the logic that already exists in other interventional therapies, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy".
Virtual reality is already currently used to help cure those who suffer from phobias such as arachnophobia and vertigo. Source: New Scientist, June 26, 2002
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