Feasibility of a virtual reality program to treat children with fear of darkness with nonexpert therapists / Viabilidad de un programa de realidad virtual para tratar niños con miedo a la oscuridad con terapeutas no expertos

Fear of darkness is highly prevalent and stable in children and often ends up becoming a specific situational phobia. The aim of this study is to analyze the feasibility of adapting and applying it through a Virtual Reality (VR) tool by nonexpert therapists. A pre-experimental study was carried out with six participants between the ages of 8 and 12 years old using pre- and posttreatment scales for assessing the fear of darkness. Statistically significant differences with large effects were found in all posttreatment measures: EMO (Roshenthal's r = 0.64), WCDAN (r = 0.52), and Global item of current fear of darkness (r = 0.59). Using the Reliable Change Index (RCI) as a measure of clinically significant change, four participants improved satisfactorily, one acceptably, and the other did not improve. The results support the feasibility of using an adapted VR program to treat fear of darkness without being an expert therapist. However, more detailed experimental studies need to be carried out in order to analyze its efficacy

El miedo a la oscuridad es muy frecuente y estable en los niños y, a menudo, termina convirtiéndose en una fobia situacional específica. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar la viabilidad de adaptarlo y aplicarlo a través de una herramienta de realidad virtual (RV) por terapeutas no expertos. Se ha llevado a cabo un estudio pre-experimental con seis participantes de 8 a 12 años de edad utilizando escalas de pre y postratamiento para evaluar el miedo a la oscuridad. Se han encontrado diferencias estadísticamente significativas con tamaños del efecto grandes en todas las medidas posteriores al tratamiento: EMO (Roshenthal's r = 0.64), WCDAN (r = 0.52), e ítem global del miedo actual a la oscuridad (r = 0.59). Al usar el Índice de Cambio Fiable (ICF) como una medida del cambio clínicamente significativo, cuatro participantes mejoraron satisfactoriamente, uno aceptablemente, y el otro no mejoró. Los resultados apoyan la viabilidad de utilizar un programa de RV adaptado para tratar el miedo a la oscuridad sin necesidad de un terapeuta experto. Sin embargo, se necesitan estudios experimentales más detallados para analizar su eficacia

COVID-19 and mental health: A review and the role of telehealth and virtual reality.

On March 12, 2020, with more than 20,000 confirmed cases and almost 1000 deaths in the European Region, the World Health Organization classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. As of August 15, 2020, there are 21.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 766,000 deaths from the virus, worldwide. Most governments have imposed quarantine measures of varied degrees of strictness on their populations in attempts to stall the spread of the infection in their communities. However, the isolation may have inflicted long-term psychological injury to the general population and, in particular, to at-risk groups such as the elderly, the mentally ill, children, and frontline healthcare staff. In this article, we offer the most up-to-date review of the effects of COVID-19 confinement on all the disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. We make data-driven predictions of the impact of COVID-19 confinement on mental health outcomes and discuss the potential role of telemedicine and virtual reality in mental health screening, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, thus improving the above outcomes in such a difficult time.