Tag: AVATAR therapy

Reading of the Week: VR-Assisted Therapy – the New Lancet Psych Paper; Also, Genetic Variations & Psychosis and Dr. Sundar on Patients With Answers

From the Editor

Even with medications, the voices tormented him. My patient explained that his every move was commented on.

In avatar therapy, patients engage audiovisual representations of their voices, with the goal of reducing their influence. In the first selection, a new paper from Lancet Psychiatry, Lisa Charlotte Smith (of the University of Copenhagen) and her co-authors look at a new form of avatar therapy, with an immersive 3D experience. In this RCT, participants had enhanced usual care or the therapy; the severity of auditory hallucinations was then measured at 12 weeks. “Challenge-VRT showed short-term efficacy in reducing the severity of auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia, and the findings support further development and evaluation of immersive virtual reality-based therapies in this population.” We consider the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, Dr. Mark Ainsley Colijn (of the University of Calgary) writes about psychosis and rare genetic variation. In a Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper – part of the new Clinician’s Corner series – he offers suggestions for antipsychotic meds. “When providing care for individuals with psychosis occurring on the background of rare genetic variation, psychiatrists should take the time to educate themselves accordingly to ensure the safe and rational prescribing of antipsychotic medications in this population.”

And in the third selection, from JAMA, Dr. Kumara Raja Sundar (of Kaiser Permanente Washington) comments on patients who use ChatGPT. The author, a family doctor, notes that many physicians can be paternalistic – but he urges against that instinct. “If patients are arming themselves with information to be heard, our task as clinicians is to meet them with recognition, not resistance. In doing so, we preserve what has always made medicine human: the willingness to share meaning, uncertainty, and hope, together.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Is AVATAR Therapy a Breakthrough for Those Who Hear Voices? The New Lancet Psychiatry Paper

From the Editor

“The voices won’t leave me alone.”

A patient made this comment to me recently. And it’s an experience many patients have had. Despite medications and follow up, the voices continue to be problematic.

This week, we look at a new paper from The Lancet Psychiatry which considers a novel approach: AVATAR therapy.

In this study, patients who experienced auditory hallucinations created a computerized simulation (avatar) of the voice they most wanted to influence, including what the voice said, how it sounded, and how the “entity” with the voice looked like. Patients, working with a therapist who controlled the avatar, then had therapy sessions in which they could talk to it. Patients were compared on several measures to those who only received supportive therapy.

The paper has received significant media attention including CNN and BBC.

1124avatar2The Face of the Voice – and a Step Toward Healing?

Spoiler alert: the therapy helped – at least initially – but the results are complicated. (And, no, this isn’t “fake news,” to borrow a phrase from an American politician.)

In this Reading, we consider the paper and its findings.

DG

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