CADIA » Inducing Phobia Response Using Virtual Reality (NSN 2016)

h1. Agoraphobia

!{width: 35%}http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xd/485738354.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=2DF30557A92EF68A85894671AB9CB2A7057966828B4ABE84986B009FC9C4541A87C476B959F63ED4!

h2. The Fear of Wide-Open, Crowded Places

h3. Phobic Properties

Agoraphobia is not an actual specific phobia, it's really an anxiety disorder. It often develops as a complication of panic disorder, with people avoiding places where it might be embarrassing or hard to leave if they felt a panic disorder on its way. This eventually leads to agoraphobiacs always staying at home or only venturing out with a friend or family member, which places significant strain on both themselves and the friend/family member. Agoraphobia can occur without being triggered by panic disorder, but this has not been research to a great extent since agoraphobia wasn't recognized as a separate disorder until 2013.

Agoraphobia may also in part stem from a vestibular failure, thus causing the phobiac to rely more on visual cues than other people. This can e.g. be seen in a research using virtual reality wherein non-agoraphobiacs had slightly less cybersickness in a auditory-visual environment than in a solely visual environment, agoraphobiacs however had three times more cybersickness in the auditory-visual environment than in the solely visual one.

h3. Connection to Virtual Reality

VR therapy seems to be as good as CBT as a treatment for agoraphobia, if not better. However, long-term effects are not as strong after VR therapy.

Agoraphobiacs experience high levels of cybersickness if they are in a auditory-visual environment compared to the general population. This difference does not appear in solely visual environments.