COVID Feel Good - an easy self-help virtual reality protocol to overcome the psychological burden of coronavirus

Abstract

Background: Living in the time of the COVID-19 means experiencing not only a global health emergency but also extreme psychological stress with potential emotional side effects such as sadness, grief, irritability, and mood swings. Crucially, lockdown and confinement measures isolate people who become the first and the only ones in charge of their own mental health: people are left alone facing a novel and potentially lethal situation, and, at the same time, they need to develop adaptive strategies to face it, at home. In this view, easy-to-use, inexpensive, and scientifically validated self-help solutions aiming to reduce the psychological burden of coronavirus are extremely necessary.Aims: This pragmatic trial aims to provide the evidence that a weekly self-help virtual reality (VR) protocol can help overcome the psychological burden of the Coronavirus by relieving anxiety, improving well-being, and reinforcing social connectedness. The protocol will be based on the "Secret Garden" 360 VR video online (www. covidfeelgood.com) which simulates a natural environment aiming to promote relaxation and self-reflection. Three hundred sixty-degree or spherical videos allow the user to control the viewing direction. In this way, the user can explore the content from any angle like a panorama and experience presence and immersion. The "Secret Garden" video is combined with daily exercises that are designed to be experienced with another person

Connecting to Nature through 360° Videos during COVID-19 Confinement: A Pilot Study of a Brief Psychological Intervention

“…Given the limited literature regarding the use of VR exposure to nature [50] and the consequences that confinement has on mental health and well-being (e.g., [1,5,7]), studies on the benefits of virtual exposure to nature in people who do not have access to natural environments are needed. e intervention-called STONE "Staying in TOuch with NaturE"-is based on previous evidence that has shown the restorative effect of interventions that include natural environments [15] and VR's capacity to induce and promote positive emotions and well-being [35]. In this regard, we expected to find an overall improvement in psychological functioning after administering a low-cost intervention through an easy-to-use and flexible technology in terms of technical requirements.…”

“…Similar results were obtained by Chung et al [34]; who found that exposure to a 5-min 360 °nature VR helped individuals suffering from mental fatigue to better manage their attentional resources. Another example of the use of the combination of VR and nature exposure to help overcome the psychological burden of COVID-19 is the weekly self-help VR protocol by Riva et al [35]. e virtual world simulates a natural environment in order to promote relaxation and self-reflection, and the VR video is combined with daily exercises to be experienced with another person.…”

A virtual reality home-based training for the management of stress and anxiety among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…The Secret Garden is a 10-min computer graphic 360° video developed by Riva and colleagues [ 26 , 64 ] for relaxation training and freely available at the website www.covidfeelgood.com . Well-being psychologists have written this experience to mimic the structure and the experience of walking in a Japanese garden [ 74 ], providing the visual (i.e., the flow of water) and auditory (i.e., the sound of running water) natural elements available outdoors (Fig.…”

“…Importantly, recent standalone VR systems have made this technology feasible for everyday in-home use [ 61 ]. Thanks to this fact, home-based VR programs represent new promising interventions for remote psychological support [ 61 – 63 ], including relaxation training [ 64 , 65 ]. The second main limitation of VR interventions tested by previous studies is related to their content [ 58 , 59 ].…”

“…The intervention will consist of three training sessions performed in a week. In each session, participants will try through an immersive VR standalone system (i.e., Oculus Quest 2), a virtual psychoeducation experience on stress and anxiety (i.e., MIND-VR) [ 50 ], followed by a virtual content for relaxation (i.e., The Secret Garden) [ 64 ].…”