The Influence of Immersive Environments on the Empathy Construct about Schizophrenia

Gomes, Paulo Veloso; Marques, António; Pereira, Javier; Donga, João

doi:10.3390/proceedings2019021003

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…The CAVE term usage is commonly embraced and refers to a walk-in environment first conceived in 1991 that made use of rear-projected screens [14], with various models offering a similar experience known via different names since mid-20 th century. These have included: "logical apparatus" [26]; "kinesthetic display" [65]; "an environment which has sub-environments" [35]; "high-resolution virtual reality inter-face" [13]; "fully immersive projection displays" [58]; "multi-sensory synthetic environments" [16]; "XR [Extended Reality] environments" [29]; "impacting environments" [22]. Authors Loomis, Blascovich and Beall describe what they call an immersive Extended Reality 4 An integrative model in psychotherapy, psychiatry or psychoanalysis, collectively understood as psy-sciences, might look at a person's experiences in a physiological, sociocultural and existential context, whereby a person's mental ill-health or trauma, as examples, are not reduced to a malady of the isolated brain or conceptual mind, but as inter-relating life experience; brain, body and environment combined as a system.…”

Section: Immersive Vr In Mental Healthcarementioning

confidence: 99%

The Timeline: A Qualitative Study Exploring Therapeutic Experiences in an Immersive Interactive Virtual Environment (IIVE) for Trauma Mental Healthcare

Bruce

Rebair

Holmquist

2022

Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference

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When facilitating mental health interventions, therapists typically involve clients in discussion within a room containing seating and a table. We argue that digital technologies can be leveraged to encourage physiological, multisensory experiences for users to work through their challenges. In the context of trauma in mental healthcare, where the body's involvement can play a critical role in the recovery journey, such an approach can offer potential in altering the dynamic of how interventions are delivered and received. This infers a client-led process where environment and features become inclusive to a holistic treatment pathway. We developed an intervention called The Timeline, situated in an immersive interactive virtual environment (IIVE). The iterative process was informed by interviews with 12 "Experts by Profession", as frontline mental health workers with an average engagement of 16 years. We then invited 12 "Experts by Experience", with lived understanding of a range of trauma, to trial and evaluate the system at a UK-based hospital. We report on data from participants across both studies, evidencing how The Timeline, as bespoke content, could lead to participatory choice and personalized control in the context of dig-ital therapy. Finally, we discuss how IIVEs could become a new platform towards a more integrative therapeutic delivery in mental healthcare. CCS CONCEPTS• Applied computing Life and medical sciences; Health care information systems; • Human-centered computing Human computer interaction (HCI); Interaction paradigms; Virtual reality; Human computer interaction (HCI); Empirical studies in HCI.

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Section: Immersive Vr In Mental Healthcarementioning

confidence: 99%

The Timeline: A Qualitative Study Exploring Therapeutic Experiences in an Immersive Interactive Virtual Environment (IIVE) for Trauma Mental Healthcare

Bruce

Rebair

Holmquist

2022

Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Can Virtual Reality Technology be Used for Empathy Education in Medical Students: A Randomized Case-control Study (Preprint)

Lin,

Huang,

Wang

et al. 2023

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Empathy is an important factor in the doctor-patient relationship, but mental illness is more difficult to understand than other diseases. While traditional medical empathy education, such as workshops, role-playing, and patient shadowing, has been effective, it is also time-consuming, and the outcome may be inconsistent due to different training processes. Virtual reality (VR) has been identified as a promising tool in empathy education for schizophrenia. However, what kind of thoughts and attitudes could be changed through VR and whether empathy education through VR could be widely applied to other mental diseases have not been fully addressed by previous studies. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the ability of empathy enhancement, the feasibility of depression education, and the changes in thoughts and attitudes in medical students through a single VR experience. METHODS We recruited medical students and randomly assigned them to two groups based on their completed Interpersonal Response Index (IRI) scores. Two sets of VR systems were provided; the intervention group experienced the daily life of the depressed medical student, while the control group experienced the general medical student scenario. The improvement of empathy was assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS), and the change of attitude was assessed through the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In addition, other questionnaires were used to evaluate the user experience of this VR system, and correlation analysis was conducted to examine the association between the use of VR and changes in the JSE and IAT scores. RESULTS A total of 59 medical students were enrolled in this study. The intervention group showed a significant increase in the perspective-taking (PT) (pre: mean 5.817, SD 0.536; post: mean 5.947, SD 0.620; P=.03) and compassionate care (CC) (pre: mean 5.546, SD 0.581; post: mean 5.721, SD 0.629; P=.01) domains of the JSE score and a significant decrease in the empathy (SP) domain (pre: mean 3.583, SD 1.253; post: mean 2.967, SD 1.252; P=.002). The Pearson correlation analysis found a significant positive correlation between the JSE score with immersion aspect (r=0.308, P=.049) and presence aspect (r=0.415, P=.01), and we also found a significant negative correlation between the IAT score and presence aspect (r=-0.333, P=.036). CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first randomized case-control study to investigate the effect of two different versions of VR on empathy development toward depression for medical students. Although the single VR experience was unable to induce a great improvement in empathy or attitude, the VR system could help medical students enhance their understanding of depressive disorders more efficiently in future studies, with the extension of VR to a long-term course, in combination with traditional intervention after the VR experience, and application to other mental illnesses. CLINICALTRIAL The purpose of our study was to examine the change in empathy and attitude in medical students, which meets one of the conditions that does not require registration. This randomized controlled trial was not registered, but its protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (202001315B0D001).

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The Influence of Immersive Environments on the Empathy Construct about Schizophrenia

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

The Timeline: A Qualitative Study Exploring Therapeutic Experiences in an Immersive Interactive Virtual Environment (IIVE) for Trauma Mental Healthcare

The Timeline: A Qualitative Study Exploring Therapeutic Experiences in an Immersive Interactive Virtual Environment (IIVE) for Trauma Mental Healthcare

Can Virtual Reality Technology be Used for Empathy Education in Medical Students: A Randomized Case-control Study (Preprint)

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