This disability manifests itself in a variety of areas such as the maintenance of interpersonal relationships, the ability to be independent for activities of daily living, and the performance of pleasurable and leisure activities (Bellack et al. It affects approximately 1% of the population and is associated with a significant and persistent functional disability.
Schizophrenia is one of the most disabling psychiatric disorders, classified as one of the major diseases contributing to the global burden of disease (Salomon et al. On the other hand, avatars allow therapists to control and manipulate treatment stimuli in a relatively simple way. From the patients’ point of view, avatar-based applications have been shown to help reduce communication barriers and promote treatment adherence through anonymity. 2019 Aiken and Berry 2019), as they serve several functions that encourage the involvement of patients with mental health problems and health professionals (Rehm et al. In addition, avatar-based applications in psychology and psychiatry are particularly beneficial (Chandrasiri et al. Virtual reality (VR) is gaining more and more importance in therapies dedicated to enhancing health care and well-being (Escalona et al. Moreover, the most important results, the lessons learned and the main limitations of our study are discussed. The evaluation does not only focus on usability, but also assesses the acceptance of the technology as an important indicator of the future use of a new technological tool. Hence, the two contributions of this paper are (1) the description of an avatar creation system and the main technical details of the configuration of auditory hallucination avatars, and (2) its evaluation from both the therapists’ and the patients’ viewpoints.
Auditory hallucination end of life software#
The involvement of end users in the software development is beneficial in obtaining useful and usable tools. Unfortunately, the software tools used in these therapies are not described in depth and, even more important, to the best of our knowledge, their usability, utility and intention to use by therapists, and patients have not been evaluated enough.
A virtual representation of their voice (avatar) is created in a controlled computer-based environment, and the patient is encouraged to confront it. Recently, virtual reality technologies have been incorporated to this type of therapies. In the cases in which the use of antipsychotic drugs is not possible or not recommended, psychotherapeutic interventions are used to help patients gain power and control against hearing voices. It is commonly treated with pharmacological approaches but, unfortunately, such an approach is not effective in all patients. Auditory hallucinations are common and distressing symptoms of the schizophrenia disease.
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