VR business helps treat depression, anxiety

Dr. Lindsey Van Duyn is a physician in Washington, where she sees a wide variety of patients, many of whom face challenges with their mental health, like depression and anxiety. When one such patient, several years ago, saw little improvement from traditional approaches like medication or therapy, and Van Duyn went looking for something new.

She found a growing body of literature suggesting treatment-resistant patients could find relief through virtual reality — a cutting-edge technology that involves a headset, and immersive sounds and visuals that make users feel like they’re in another place entirely.

While the approach was intriguing, the doctor bumped into a new problem: despite thousands of case studies, experimental trials, pilot projects and academic papers, she couldn’t find a reputable treatment program on the market.

So she made her own.

Curated from a wide variety of apps and even YouTube videos, Van Duyn’s program — called Immersive Medical Therapy — includes a library of lessons she can prescribe to patients, walking them through things like breathing exercises, guided meditation, pain management, and any number of other tools to help manage their symptoms.

“I wasn’t looking for an alternative, I was just looking for ways to help the kids,” she said. “But when I kept coming across virtual reality as a safe and effective mode of treatment, then I said, ‘Why aren’t more people using this? More people should be able to use this, if they choose to.’”

So far, the program has worked well for the 10 trial-users, who’ve agreed to test it since Van Duyn started development in June of last year. Once a few more bugs are worked out, she plans to monetize it in the near future, letting other doctors and therapists buy it for their juvenile patients, and letting adults buy it for themselves.

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The technology works, according to Van Duyn, by essentially tricking users into thinking they’re somewhere else.

By breaking from their surroundings, anyone wearing a VR headset can center themselves in a more calming space, like watching a sunrise from a peaceful mountain valley, she said.

The immersion of 360-degree visuals and surround sound make it considerably easier to absorb the lessons prescribed by a doctor.

“Our body does not know the difference … when you’re in virtual reality, and you’re in a room, and a box flies at you, you actually duck. When you’re on a beach and sun is rising, you see the biomarkers change, you feel the heart rate go down,” Van Duyn said.

“The frontal lobe of the brain, that’s where that rumination is, the thoughts that consistently role, that’s where they’re processed,” she continued. “In virtual reality, the frontal lobe gets taken over by all that visual stimuli, the two can’t coexist.”

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Van Duyn acknowledged that many patients felt skeptical about the program. With technology as new as VR, and science as complex as psychology, some users worry the treatment is a pop-science fad, rather than an evidence-based approach.

But with a sizable literature base and minimal risks to the VR program, she has a straightforward approach to convincing skeptical patients otherwise; she simply asks them to try it.

“If it triggers an old trauma, or if it makes a person feel uncomfortable, they can simply step out of it,” she said. “But the benefit of it, if it does help them and they do feel that there’s a change, they can keep using it. And the benefit can be profound … we’ve had 10 students go through the program from start to finish, and I’ve seen improvement in all of them, they’ve all said the program was helpful.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com