Five medical applications of virtual reality

Our favorite ways of presenting virtual reality is hardly beneficial. We are saved from the dull gray of January by using points of virtual reality, going to Sunny beach. Or go out into the yard, using his space for some active play. Or something what to write here it would be desirable.

Although these uses of virtual reality, without a doubt, will give you the opportunity to feel better, there are many people who use virtual reality for the treatment of serious physical and psychological problems. In this article we will consider several ways of using virtual reality for medical treatment.

Relief боли



Oddly enough, virtual reality can eliminate certain physical effects.

For a long time scientists at Washington University studied ways to reduce suffering in the treatment of severe burns. Placed in a virtual environment that, first, the patients, and eased the pain, and secondly, the virtual experience reduces the level of anxiety of patients, associated with memories of the situation that resulted in burns.

In the process of program SnowWorld, patients were placed in a virtual reality program, where they walked through the snowy Wonderland, walked with the penguins on the iceberg and throwing virtual snowballs. The program SnowWorld was developed on the basis of another program — SpiderWorld. It is also used as a therapeutic tool.

Фобии



Each of us is afraid of something, unreasonable or irrational. Whether it's height, public speaking or pigeons, with their eyes beady and dangerous beaks, which fly overhead without warning (don't laugh, it happens), sometimes our fears can develop into a paralyzing fear. People are unable to climb stairs, to run around people or run in terror from mad men feeding the pigeons bread.

When we get to that, virtual reality can be a safe tool for slow and comfortable overcoming fears patient. As we have noted above, the program called SpiderWorld has been created to free people from arachnophobia. Patients were placed in a virtual room with a tarantula and trained to approach the spider as closely as possible using the joystick. In the end, the sensor on the hand and gave them the opportunity to feel the touch of the spider (actually they touch a toy spider). After this procedure, the level of anxiety when meeting with the spiders was significantly reduced.

Post-traumatic стресс



Stress after trauma can seriously alter human behavior, it starts to behave strangely. Avoidance of conflict situations, anxious and aggressive reactions to everyday events can become an everyday experience for people with post-traumatic stress.

Virtual reality can be used as a way of getting rid of these reactions, allowing patients to more fully dive into a healthy lifestyle. Immersion therapy has become a very successful course for patients with post-traumatic stress, but also led to some difficulties. Basically it would be quite irresponsible, for example, to arrange an accident for patients to be able to find the cause that is causing them pain.

Virtual reality, however, patients can in a completely safe environment to reflect in search of the causes of your condition. It may seem strange, but if the patient is faced with images of his injury, memory can play a good joke: to overcome the fear and make this event. Survivors of terrorist attacks, for example, can "attend" the virtual town square, where a bus was blown up. Reacting to the experience, the patients begin to analyze and delve into the memories of a traumatic event, which they were.

Шизофрения



One of the most unusual uses of virtual reality is the study and even treatment of schizophrenia. You might think that putting a schizophrenic in an imaginary world — it's a bad idea that even sounds illogical. But do not forget that one of the biggest advantages of virtual reality is the safety of the environment. In this case, this applies not only to the patient but also people around him or her.

First of all, schizophrenia in a virtual environment can be measured as will not work in the real world. Like many mental illnesses, schizophrenia must be understood in a social context. But unsafe or unethical to put the schizophrenic into the atmosphere, which may disturb him or trigger a dangerous reaction. Therefore, researchers developed virtual reality tools for this purpose. One of the programs simulates a trip on the subway, scientists can observe the patient's response towards the neutral avatars. For example, if the patient is convinced that one of the virtual characters is talking to him, this may indicate a high level of paranoia. Also virtual reality greatly facilitates the treatment, since it is possible to analyze the patient experience, placing it in the same situation.

Реабилитация



To this end, we considered a situation when virtual reality was useful in a psychological context, but also found that some of the advantages it possesses in the treatment of patients needing physical rehabilitation.

Patients who have had a stroke, was examined by using virtual reality to improve muscle reaction. Using the power glove (which is used to stimulate resistance), the patients received the task to force his fingers to move. Improvements were evident. Perhaps virtual reality creates a certain motivation. A large part of rehabilitation is carried out in hospitals and it is exactly what virtual reality creates a more interesting atmosphere to complete therapy.

Some of the virtual reality also advertise the virtual world as a much more interesting place, which is much nicer to have a painful or physical rehabilitation. Of particular benefit is it for people with disabilities. People in wheelchairs can feel once again standing on both feet. Yes, it's an illusion, but what's wrong with illusions, if they give hope?

Source: hi-news.ru