Comparison of VR-Assisted Therapy to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in the treatment of verbal hallucinations in patient with treatment-resistant schizophrenia

Introduction Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), which often present in individuals with schizophrenia, can cause great psychological distress. Although antipsychotic medication reduce AVH, 30% of patients will be resistant. Treatment resistance could associated important consequences, and there are only few treatment alternatives. Unfortunately, more than 50% not respond favorably to the best available therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). However, using virtual reality (VR), our research team has adapted a whose goal is recreate faces voices patients’ persecutory as avatars. By interacting an external representation their hallucinations, implement new strategies control regulate emotions. A small clinical trial (proof concept) demonstrated safety validity this well its superiority compared usual treatment. Objectives (1) To verify whether VR-Assisted Therapy (VRT) superior CBT for AVH; (2) examine effects VRT on symptomatology quality life. Methods For single-blind randomized controlled trial, 136 by recruited (68/intervention) The psychotic life assessed standardized questionnaires. Patients included if they hear have responded at least 2 trials antipsychotics. Both groups from site begin initial assessment prior randomization. Participants then receive 9 weekly one-hour sessions (CBT or VRT), beginning following week. second evaluation carried out one week after last session. linear mixed model used compare interventions. Results pilot comparative evaluating short- long-term efficacy over treatment-resistant schizophrenia (N=37/group) showed that both interventions produced significant improvements AVH severity depressive symptoms. results did show statistically achieve larger particularly overall ( d = 1.080 0.555 CBT). recruitment current progress. Image: Conclusions VRT, currently under investigation, presents itself interesting complement existing pharmacological treatments. Since VR technologies allow recreation scenarios nearly impossible reproduce real life, VR-assisted psychotherapy eventually become integral part practices. Disclosure Interest None Declared