What is this study about?
New technologies provide more opportunities than ever before to work creatively with people affected by depression. One of these technologies is virtual reality (VR), which creates environments and scenarios that people can interact with as if they were real. Virtual reality can be used to help people experiencing depression explore and practise being more compassionate towards themselves.
Research shows that compassion plays an important role in general well-being and mental health, and that learning to be more self-compassionate can help people with depression to feel better. There are existing psychological therapies which aim to help people develop a more compassionate relationship with themselves. However, not everyone with depression finds it easy to access these therapies, partly because they are relatively time-consuming and expensive. Some people also struggle with parts of the therapy that involve remembering or imagining positive experiences of compassion from other people.
This study aims to find out if a new therapy that combines compassion-based therapies with VR technology is helpful and practical for people with depression who are registered with NHS psychology therapy services. This new virtual reality therapy is based on what is already known about depression, self-compassion, and how virtual reality affects the brain, mind, and body. It has been developed based on research in which practising self-compassion in virtual reality helped people to think more positively about themselves, and in the case of people with depression, helped them feel less depressed. People who have experienced depression have also been actively involved in creating this new virtual reality therapy.
Contact
Professor John King john.king@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Emma Jayne Kilford e.kilford@ucl.ac.uk
Sponsor
University College London (UCL)
Funder
National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme