Virtual reality exposure therapy for claustrophobia

Abstract

One in four people in Norway will be affected by an anxiety disorder at some point in their life. One of these prevalent anxiety disorders is claustrophobia. Facing these scenarios on their own may help or worsen the problem depending on several factors. Therefore, it needs further exploration in the right environment assisted by a licensed physician to ensure the patient has an empowering experience rather than a traumatic one. A virtual reality simulator has been developed and evaluated to help with exposure therapy for claustrophobia. The project had 7 medical professionals volunteer as evaluators in 8 evaluation sessions. SUS scores from evaluation sessions of the latest version of this application show that 5 out of 6 evaluators give highly positive feedback on all usability counts. Testimonies from the evaluators support the claim that the simulation can trigger an anxiety attack in people with claustrophobia, even though we could not test this hypothesis on actual patients. When asked, several evaluators said they felt like they were using an actual elevator. Being able to capture that feeling through only visuals and sounds is a significant achievement for this project. The results from the evaluation session indicate that the elevator simulator has considerable potential for use in exposure therapy for claustrophobia.