Virtual Worlds, Real Healing (2007)

In the social cognition special section, G. Miller explained how virtual worlds such as Second Life have become a fertile ground for psychologists exploring human behavior (“The promise of parallel universes,” 7 September, p. 1341). In addition to the important social applications mentioned in Miller's article, online communities are playing an emerging role in health services.

Compared with the traditional telehealth systems (i.e., chat, e-mail, and videoconference), online virtual worlds provide the remote user, or patient, with a feeling of embodiment that has the potential to facilitate the clinical communication process and to positively influence group cohesiveness in group-based therapies. It may also create higher levels of interpersonal trust ([1][1]), which is a fundamental requirement for establishing a successful therapeutic alliance.

![Figure][2] 

Virtual therapy.
An example of a group support therapy scenario in Second Life.

CREDIT: EUREKA ISLAND; ISTITUTO AUXOLOGICO ITALIANO, MILAN, ITALY

Recent evidence has shown that virtual reality-based treatments effectively combat anxiety disorders ([2][3]) and allow subjects to develop real-world skills starting from virtual experiences ([3][4]). These successes raise the possibility of creating online immersive therapeutic environments for specific disorders. Imagine, for example, a patient with a social phobia who avoids any interaction with other people. After a number of face-to-face sessions with a therapist, the patient can use his personal avatar to explore a virtual environment, such as a virtual pub in which he can ask the barman for a drink. In the following sessions, other people progressively enter the same virtual pub (they can be other patients, for example) and interact with the patient until he can develop efficient social contacts. The therapist can remotely monitor the patient's psychological, physiological, and emotional responses with the use of biomonitoring systems and can modify the intervention on the basis of the therapeutic needs. This is just one example of the promise of virtual worlds in clinical settings.

1. 1.[↵][5]1. G. Bente, 2. S. Ruggenberg, 3. N. C. ramer
 , paper presented at the 8th International Workshop on Presence, London, 21 to 23 September 2005.
 

2. 2.[↵][6]1. L. Gregg, 2. N. Tarrier
 , Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol 42, 343 (2007).
 [OpenUrl][7][CrossRef][8][PubMed][9][Web of Science][10]

3. 3.[↵][11]1. G. Riva
 , CyberPsychol. Behav 8, 220 (2005).
 [OpenUrl][12][CrossRef][13][PubMed][14][Web of Science][15]

 [1]: #ref-1
 [2]: pending:yes
 [3]: #ref-2
 [4]: #ref-3
 [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text
 [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2. in text
 [7]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DSocial%2Bpsychiatry%2Band%2Bpsychiatric%2Bepidemiology%26rft.stitle%253DSoc%2BPsychiatry%2BPsychiatr%2BEpidemiol%26rft.aulast%253DGregg%26rft.auinit1%253DL.%26rft.volume%253D42%26rft.issue%253D5%26rft.spage%253D343%26rft.epage%253D354%26rft.atitle%253DVirtual%2Breality%2Bin%2Bmental%2Bhealth%2B%253A%2Ba%2Breview%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bliterature.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1007%252Fs00127-007-0173-4%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F17431528%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx
 [8]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1007/s00127-007-0173-4&link_type=DOI
 [9]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=17431528&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fsci%2F318%2F5856%2F1549.2.atom
 [10]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000246411200001&link_type=ISI
 [11]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3. in text
 [12]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DCyberpsychology%2B%2526%2Bbehavior%2B%253A%2B%2Bthe%2Bimpact%2Bof%2Bthe%2BInternet%252C%2Bmultimedia%2Band%2Bvirtual%2Breality%2Bon%2Bbehavior%2Band%2Bsociety%26rft.stitle%253DCyberpsychol%2BBehav%26rft.aulast%253DRiva%26rft.auinit1%253DG.%26rft.volume%253D8%26rft.issue%253D3%26rft.spage%253D220%26rft.epage%253D230%26rft.atitle%253DVirtual%2Breality%2Bin%2Bpsychotherapy%253A%2Breview.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1089%252Fcpb.2005.8.220%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F15971972%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx
 [13]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1089/cpb.2005.8.220&link_type=DOI
 [14]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=15971972&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fsci%2F318%2F5856%2F1549.2.atom
 [15]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000229961400008&link_type=ISI