Virtual Reality-Based Simulated Hallucinations to Enhance Empathy Toward Individuals With Schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT: Individuals affected by schizophrenia often relay frustration that persons in their life are unable to understand their symptoms. We sought to examine whether a brief virtual reality (VR) experience for students in an undergraduate psychopathology course entailing simulated hallucinations could increase empathy, decrease negative affect, and positively affect attitudes toward persons with schizophrenia. After the unit on schizophrenia, 41 participants engaged in a VR experience with simulated auditory and visual hallucinations. We sought to maximize fidelity and immersion by incorporating the actual classroom and course instructor into the virtual world. By collecting data at multiple points, we were able to isolate the impact of the simulation on affect and attitudes. Participants experienced an increase in empathy and favorable attitudes toward individuals with schizophrenia and reported the simulation to be highly educational. The favorable results are notable given the brevity of the simulation and the absence of any explicit (declarative) knowledge being conveyed.

The paradoxical association between tension-reduction alcohol outcome expectancies and tension following alcohol consumption.

Background: Behavioral models suggest that strong tension-reduction alcohol-outcome expectancies (TREs) among drinkers should be associated with greater tension reduction after drinking. Yet, the few studies investigating this have found either no relationship or the opposite relationship.Objectives: We sought to explore this relationship by building upon the limitations of past studies and employing a placebo-controlled, within-subject experimental design.Methods: Sixty social drinkers (26 M, 34 F) visited the lab on two occasions spaced one week apart. Each participant was randomly assigned to receive alcoholic drinks targeting a BAC of 0.05% on one testing day and placebo drinks on the other, with the order counter-balanced. On both testing days, participants completed measures of state anxiety and fear both before drinking and following a drinking/absorption period. While completing the self-report measures, participants were anticipating an impending, mildly stressful heartbeat perception task.Results: Multilevel modeling revealed that the more strongly individuals believed that alcohol reduces tension, the less the pharmacologic properties of alcohol did so (p = .02 for the state anxiety outcome measure; p = .001 for the fear outcome measure). This was the case even with anxiety sensitivity - a known predictor of stress-response dampening - controlled for.Conclusions: These results provide further evidence for the paradoxical association of TREs and the dampening of anxiety. Additionally, the findings are consistent with the basis of expectancy challenges that aim to reframe inaccurate TREs among drinkers.

Biochemical challenges for testing novel anti-panic drugs in humans.

Current medications for panic disorder each carry significant limitations that indicate the need for novel anxiolytics. The high costs and low success rates of drug development demand that testing trials be efficient. Lab panicogenic challenges in humans allow for the rapid biochemical induction of panic symptoms and hence an efficient means of testing potential anti-panic drugs. This paper describes ideal characteristics of lab panicogens, reviews the validity and utility of various biochemical panicogenic agents, identifies key outcome measures for studies of novel anti-panic drugs, and makes broad recommendations for labs wishing to perform such studies. We conclude by presenting a four-tiered hierarchy of panicogens that matches each against ideal characteristics and reflects our recommendations for their laboratory use.