Monday, July 1, 2002		Feature

Schizophrenia and virtual reality

AUSTRALIAN scientists are using virtual reality to conjure up demons plaguing schizophrenia patients to help them realise they are not real.

By confronting the psychoses, staff at the Mental Health Research Institute in Melbourne and the University of Queensland in Brisbane hope patients will be better able to deal with their hallucinations and ignore them.

"Any attempt to help people monitor, recognise and create strategies to deal with their hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms in a controlled environment is good," David Castle, one of the researchers, told New Scientist magazine.

A prototype 3D virtual reality simulation depicts a living room that mimics common hallucinations - walls that close in, picture frames that wobble, faces that morph into each other - and an equally disturbing soundtrack.

"The prototype is already helping doctors and relatives of persons with schizophrenia get a better understanding of the disorder," according to the magazine.

Although it may be too frightening for some patients, the scientists think it has great potential. In the future they hope to create models that mimic the patient's own environment, so the hospital or living room will be one they are familiar with.

— Reuters