Virtual reality therapy for refractory auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A pilot clinical trial

Sert, Olivier Percie du; Potvin, Stéphane; Lipp, Olivier; Dellazizzo, Laura; Laurelli, Mélanie; Breton, R.; Lalonde, Pierre; Phraxayavong, Kingsada; O’Connor, Kieron; Pelletier, Jean‐François; Boukhalfi, Tarik; Renaud, Patrice; Dumais, Alexandre

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2018.02.031

Cited by 119 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…AT is a seven‐week intervention where the therapist engaged in a dialogue with patients through a virtual representation (i.e., avatar) of their most distressing voice. See du Sert et al () for more details. The created avatar was designed to closely resemble both the face and the voice of their persecutor.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…AT has shown favourable results on AVH (Craig et al, ; Leff et al, ). Rather than using conventional computerized technology, our research team independently adapted AT using immersive virtual reality and compared, in a pilot randomised controlled trial, AT to treatment as usual in patients with TRS (du Sert et al, ). We found significant improvements in AVH severity as well as in beliefs of malevolence, depressive symptoms, and quality of life, which lasted at the 3‐month follow‐up.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploration of the dialogue components in Avatar Therapy for schizophrenia patients with refractory auditory hallucinations: A content analysis

Dellazizzo

Sert

Phraxayavong³

et al. 2018

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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Auditory verbal hallucinations are hallmark symptoms of schizophrenia and are amongst the most disturbing symptoms of the disorder. Although not entirely understood, the relationship between the voice hearer and their voices has been shown to be an important treatment target. Understanding voice hearers' standpoints through qualitative analysis is central to apprehend a deeper comprehension of their experience and further explore the relevance of interpersonal interventions. Compared with other dialogical intervention, virtual reality-assisted therapy (Avatar Therapy) enables patients to be in a tangible relation with a representation of their persecutory voice. This novel therapy has shown favourable results, though the therapeutic processes remain equivocal. We consequently sought to begin by characterizing the main themes emerging during the therapy by exploring the hearer's discussion with their avatar. The therapy sessions of 12 of our referrals were transcribed, and the patients' responses were analysed using content analysis methods. Five themes emerged from data saturation: emotional responses to the voices, beliefs about voices and schizophrenia, self-perceptions, coping mechanisms, and aspirations. All patients had at least one element within each of these themes. Our analyses also enabled us to identify changes that were either verbalized by the patients or noted by the raters throughout therapy sessions. These findings are relevant as they allowed to identify key themes that are hypothesized to be related to therapeutic targets in a novel relational therapy using virtual reality. Future studies to further explore the processes implicated within Avatar Therapy are necessary.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploration of the dialogue components in Avatar Therapy for schizophrenia patients with refractory auditory hallucinations: A content analysis

Dellazizzo

Sert

Phraxayavong³

et al. 2018

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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“…e brain structure location and neurobiological processes underlying these structural abnormalities are central to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Furthermore, alterations to the brain structure are linked to key psychotic symptoms (such as auditory hallucinations [9,10], neurosensory deficits [11,12], and social dysfunction [13,14] in SZ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Abnormal Brain Regions in Schizophrenia Using Structural MRI via Machine Learning

Chen

Yan

Wang

et al. 2020

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience

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Utilizing neuroimaging and machine learning (ML) to differentiate schizophrenia (SZ) patients from normal controls (NCs) and for detecting abnormal brain regions in schizophrenia has several benefits and can provide a reference for the clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia. In this study, structural magnetic resonance images (sMRIs) from SZ patients and NCs were used for discriminative analysis. is study proposed an ML framework based on coarse-to-fine feature selection. e proposed framework used two-sample t-tests to extract the differences between groups first, then further eliminated the nonrelevant and redundant features with recursive feature elimination (RFE), and finally utilized the support vector machine (SVM) to learn the decision models with selected gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) features. Previous studies have tended to report differences at the group level instead of at the individual level and cannot be widely applied. e method proposed in this study extends the diagnosis to the individual level and has a higher recognition rate than previous methods. e experimental results of this study demonstrate that the proposed framework distinguishes SZ patients from NCs, with the highest classification accuracy reaching over 85%. e identified biomarkers are also consistent with previous literature findings. As a universal method, the proposed framework can be extended to diagnose other diseases.

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“…Patients ful lling inclusion criteria were randomly allocated to either VRT group or treatment-as-usual (TAU) group at a 1:1 ratio. The de nition of TAU group refers to Olivier and colleagues (29). For VRT group, patients received VRT for two weeks and antipsychotic treatment as usual while TAU group only received antipsychotic treatment as usual.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of virtual reality on cognitive impairment and clinical symptoms among patients with schizophrenia in the remission stage ： a randomized controlled trial

Sun²,

Wei

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: This is an intervention study which explores the effect of using virtual reality supermarket training system (VRSTS) to improve cognitive function deficiency and clinical symptoms in Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia in the remission stage. Methods: 68 patients with schizophrenia in the remission stage were recruited for the interventional study and were randomly allocated to either virtual reality training (VRT) group or treatment-as-usual (TAU) group. For VRT group, patients received training with VRSTS for two weeks and antipsychotic treatment as usual while TAU group only received antipsychotic treatment as usual. Cognitive function and clinical symptoms before and after intervention were assessed by MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP). Results: Results showed (1) VRSTS could improve MCCB composite scores and 4 out of 7 cognitive domains: speed of processing, working memory, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and (2) VRSTS could alleviate general psychopathology symptoms of PANSS but did not exert effects on positive and negative symptoms among patients with schizophrenia in the remission stage Conclusion: A therapeutic effect of VRSTS was observed in patients with schizophrenia in the remission stage. It may improve cognitive impairment and general psychopathology symptoms.

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Virtual reality therapy for refractory auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A pilot clinical trial

Cited by 119 publications

References 36 publications

Exploration of the dialogue components in Avatar Therapy for schizophrenia patients with refractory auditory hallucinations: A content analysis

Exploration of the dialogue components in Avatar Therapy for schizophrenia patients with refractory auditory hallucinations: A content analysis

Detecting Abnormal Brain Regions in Schizophrenia Using Structural MRI via Machine Learning

Effect of virtual reality on cognitive impairment and clinical symptoms among patients with schizophrenia in the remission stage ： a randomized controlled trial

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