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 Flying Fears? Patients Try Virtual Reality

This story is from the category Theraputic Worlds
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Date posted: 04/11/2004

New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center is using virtual reality exposure therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and other phobias.

The system was co-developed by Dr. JoAnn Difede, a hospital psychologist, and Dr. Hunter Hoffman, a researcher at the University of Washington. "In order to get better, patients must confront what they fear," said Dr. Difede. "They need to retell their trauma in order to become desensitized to it."

Using a HMD (Head Mounted Display) that blacks out all other realities except the virtual, the patient is thrust into the middle of their phobias. "It's a sensory-rich virtual world that creates an evocative therapeutic environment," said Dr. Difede. "It encourages the patient to emotionally engage."

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