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Virtual Reality and Anxiety Disorders Treatment: Evolution and Future Perspectives

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Virtual Reality for Psychological and Neurocognitive Interventions

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows the simulation of different real-life situations on a tridimensional computer-generated environment where the user can interact with the environment as if he/she were the real world. VR has potential as an exposure technique for treating anxiety disorders because VR and real objects have similar characteristics, which creates the illusion that the user is immersed and engaged with objects in the real world. Regarding the efficacy of using virtual reality exposure-based therapy (VR-EBT), for more than two decades, there has been sufficient empirical evidence regarding VR-EBT for treating anxiety disorders. Finally, this chapter ends with some directions and perspectives for future VR-EBT developments and treatments protocols.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain

    Berenice Serrano & Cristina Botella

  2. CIBER Fisiopatología, Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto Salud Carlos III, Girona, Spain

    Cristina Botella

  3. Virtual Reality Medical Center, San Diego, CA, USA

    Brenda K. Wiederhold

  4. Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium

    Brenda K. Wiederhold

  5. Universitat de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Rosa M. Baños

  6. CIBER Fisiopatología, Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto Salud Carlos III, Girona, Spain

    Rosa M. Baños

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  1. Berenice Serrano
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  3. Brenda K. Wiederhold
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  4. Rosa M. Baños
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA, USA

    Albert “Skip” Rizzo

  2. Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada

    Stéphane Bouchard

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Serrano, B., Botella, C., Wiederhold, B.K., Baños, R.M. (2019). Virtual Reality and Anxiety Disorders Treatment: Evolution and Future Perspectives. In: Rizzo, A.“., Bouchard, S. (eds) Virtual Reality for Psychological and Neurocognitive Interventions. Virtual Reality Technologies for Health and Clinical Applications. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9482-3_3

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