Virtual reality treatment of flying phobia

Flying phobia (FP) might become a very incapacitating and disturbing problem in a person's social, working, and private areas. Psychological interventions based on exposure therapy have proved to be effective, but given the particular nature of this disorder they bear important limitations. Exposure therapy for FP might be excessively costly in terms of time, money, and efforts. Virtual reality (VR) overcomes these difficulties as different significant environments might be created, where the patient can interact with what he or she fears while in a totally safe and protected environment, the therapist's consulting room. This paper intends, on one hand, to show the different scenarios designed by our team for the VR treatment of FP, and on the other, to present the first results supporting the effectiveness of this new tool for the treatment of FP in a multiple baseline study.

[1]  Mark D. Wiederhold Progress in CyberPsychology , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[2]  B. Rothbaum,et al.  Behavioral/cognitive conceptualizations of post-traumatic stress disorder , 1989 .

[3]  C. Walder,et al.  Psychological Intervention in Civilian Flying Phobia , 1987, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[4]  P. Spinhoven,et al.  People who seek help for fear of flying: Typology of flying phobics , 1997 .

[5]  L. Vandecreek,et al.  Innovations in Clinical Practice: A Source Book , 1992 .

[6]  M. North,et al.  Virtual reality therapy for fear of flying. , 1997, The American journal of psychiatry.

[7]  S. Murphy,et al.  The nature and treatment of fear of flying: A controlled investigation , 1983 .

[8]  P J Watson,et al.  The non-concurrent multiple baseline across-individuals design: an extension of the traditional multiple baseline design. , 1981, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry.

[9]  R. Baños,et al.  Virtual reality treatment of claustrophobia: a case report. , 1998, Behaviour research and therapy.

[10]  E. Echeburúa,et al.  Escala de inadaptación (EI) : propiedades psicométricas en contextos clínicos , 2000 .

[11]  L. Ost,et al.  One versus five sessions of exposure in the treatment of flying phobia. , 1997, Behaviour research and therapy.

[12]  Larry F. Hodges,et al.  Treatment of fear of flying using virtual reality exposure therapy: A single case study. , 1999 .

[13]  Robert D. Dean,et al.  Fear of Flying: Impact on the U.S. Air Travel Industry , 1982 .

[14]  K. WiederholdB.,et al.  The treatment of fear of flying , 2002 .

[15]  M. Kozak,et al.  Emotional processing of fear: exposure to corrective information. , 1986, Psychological bulletin.

[16]  K. Hugdahl,et al.  A three-systems analysis of fear of flying: a comparison of a consonant vs a non-consonant treatment method. , 1987, Behaviour research and therapy.

[17]  Richard A. Klein,et al.  Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (Fear of Flying): From a Private Practice Perspective , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[18]  Robert D. Dean,et al.  Fear of Flying: Impact on the U.S. Air Travel Industry , 1982 .

[19]  R J Roberts Passenger fear of flying: behavioural treatment with extensive in-vivo exposure and group support. , 1989, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[20]  Joseph Wolpe,et al.  The practice of behavior therapy , 1969 .

[21]  Enrique Echeburúa Odriozola,et al.  La agorafobia: nuevas perspectivas de evaluación y tratamiento , 1992 .

[22]  J G May,et al.  Emotional processing and fear measurement synchrony as indicators of treatment outcome in fear of flying. , 1990, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry.

[23]  Thomas C. Meyer,et al.  Presence as the Defining Factor in a VR Application , 1994 .

[24]  Brenda K. Wiederhold,et al.  Fear of Flying: A Case Report Using Virtual Reality Therapy with Physiological Monitoring , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[25]  Michael Kahan,et al.  Virtual Reality-Assisted Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Fear of Flying: Acute Treatment and Follow-Up , 2000, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[26]  M. Hersen Single case experimental designs , 1992 .

[27]  B. Rothbaum,et al.  Virtual reality exposure therapy in the treatment of fear of flying: a case report. , 1996, Behaviour research and therapy.

[28]  Roberts Rj Passenger fear of flying: behavioural treatment with extensive in-vivo exposure and group support , 1989 .

[29]  M S Denholtz,et al.  Automated treatment for flight phobia: a 3 1/2 year follow-up. , 1978, The American journal of psychiatry.

[30]  Dong Pyo Jang,et al.  The treatment of fear of flying: a controlled study of imaginal and virtual reality graded exposure therapy , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.