VR role-play therapy helps people with agoraphobia, finds study

Scientists say the approach enables participants to build confidence and ease their fears, helping them to undertake tasks in real life that they had previously avoided. The study also found those with more severe psychological problems benefited the most.

A mental health worker was in the room while each participant used the VR headset, whether in their home or in an NHS clinic, and worked with the participant to apply the learning, including by setting homework tasks between sessions.

The results show that six weeks after the trial began, those allocated to the VR therapy had a small but significant reduction in avoiding real-life situations because of agoraphobia, as well as less distress, compared with those who had only received their usual care. However, by six months there was no difference between the two groups.

While the study cannot tease out the impact of the VR therapy from the mental health worker and their homework, Freeman said other tests had not shown changes in agoraphobia in this population from such homework tasks alone.