Virtually Better: Using Immersive Virtual Reality to Treat Pediatric Anxiety

Anxiety is a common and impairing problem for children. The principle treatment for pediatric anxiety involves facing a child's fears in a stepwise approach through a therapeutic exercise called exposures. While exposures are effective, some feared situations cannot be confronted in a clinician's office (e.g., heights, public speaking, storms). This poses a logistical challenge in treatment that: (1) takes time away from patient care, (2) leads clinicians to rely on imagined exposures, and/or (3) requires families to complete exposures outside of the therapy visits. This creates a burden for clinicians and families, and impedes treatment success. Immersive virtual reality (VR) presents an innovative solution that allows children to face fears without leaving the clinician's office. While VR has been used to distract children during painful medical procedures, it has not been well examined as a primary treatment for pediatric anxiety. This study proposes to examine the effectiveness and acceptability of using immersive VR exposures to treat children and adolescents with specific phobias.