How does it work?

A person with a fear of flying dons a headset with earphones and sits in a special chair on top of a sound platform. The therapist sits nearby at a standard computer.

The patient would visualize himself or herself entering the computer-generated passenger cabin of a virtual airplane. They would hear the engines starting and the announcements at the start of a flight, and, with the sound platform, they would feel the movements of the plane taking off and landing. "It is more than just the game at an arcade, because the user experiences a sense of presence, a sense of immersion in the environment," psychologist Barbara Rothbaum, Ph.D. of Emory University told a group at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in August, 2000.

And it works better than asking a patient to imagine the scenario because "it's too easy for a patient to avoid the imagery." Using virtual reality, the patient can't ignore the vibrating platform and the realistic noises.

The best news is that VR therapy is proving to be as successful as standard exposure therapy. That's what Samantha Smith, Ph.D., of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,D.C. reported at the American Psychological Association meeting. She worked with about 45 patients with a fear of flying who were divided into three groups: one group received standard exposure therapy including trips to the airport, on airplanes and on real flights; the second group used virtual reality; and the third received no treatment. Dr. Smith says the first two groups both reported less anxiety about flying after completing the therapy.

In addition, Larry Hodges, Ph.D., of the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-founder of Virtually Better, Inc., worked on a fear-of-flying study paid for through the National Institutes of Health.

He also had three groups of 15 patients each, dividing them into standard, VR, and waiting-list categories.

"There was no statistical difference between virtual reality therapy and standard exposure therapy, but there was a statistical difference between both therapies and the wait-list group," Hodges told Psychiatric Times.

CONTENTS Facts about Phobias Treatment of Phobias Virtual Treatments What's Your Phobia? Phobia Quiz Phobias A-Z