Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: During the past years the field of psychological treatments based on evidence has undergone relevant progresses. (Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures, 1995). On the other hand, Virtual Reality (VR) has proven the effectiveness in the treatment of different disorders, nevertheless, there is still a long path ahead regarding its efficiency. There are many efficient virtual environments which can be applied to patients who have suffered different traumatic events: Vietnam War (Rothbaum, et al., 2001), September 11 (Difede & Hoffman, 2002), Iraq War (Rizzo et al, 2004). Nevertheless, this logic has its limitations, for it is necessary to bear in mind different virtual environments in order to manage different traumatic situations. Therefore, we have designed an RV system aimed at overcoming these limitations. This thesis proves the effectiveness and the efficiency of the VR system applied to the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, Complex Duel (CD) and Adaptation Disorders (AD). The study has been done with 45 participants, from which 13 were diagnosticated of PTSD, 16 of AD and 16 CD. Two experimental conditions were applied: protocol of traditional psychological treatment, and the same protocol supported by VR. In all cases, a design with a repeating pattern is used (pre, during and post the treatment) assigned at random. The results obtained showed that both conditions were efficient and that improvement was maintained during monitoring. Nevertheless, the treatment using the VR system improved considerably more during monitoring than traditional treatment. Patient satisfaction with treatment was studied and it was very high for both conditions. There was a trend to a higher degree of satisfaction in VR condition. Evaluation by therapists in both conditions was very positive, nevertheless, condition applying VR was better evaluated than condition using VR.
Author: Verónica Guillén
Language: Spanish
Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1512321782