China has the opportunity to lead the way in a mental health revolution by fostering innovation in the field of virtual reality; seeking to incorporate the use of virtual reality technology into psychiatry treatment. China might become an early adopter of this combination on a broad scale before any other region and become an example for other regions to follow when they implement the same.
VR-exposure based treatments have been found to help reduce anxiety disorders and researchers believe that it has the potential to transform the understanding, assessment, and treatment of mental health problems.
Virtual reality allows for specific and tight controls over stimuli to be presented and so virtual reality therapy strategies have the ability to be more precise.
Various companies have been exploring the potential for creating virtual reality content that might have a therapeutic outcome and could potentially prove useful in helping to treat a wide range of issues including: depression, claustrophobia, eating disorders and even alcohol addiction.
Researchers note that for situations that trouble individuals, VR has the potential to greatly help those individuals overcome their mental health problems if high levels of presence are achieved for those situations.
They note that that in many cases, the heart of mental health issues are difficulties interacting in the world and recovering from those issues involves those people learning how to think, react, and behave differently to the root that might be at the core of those mental health struggles that they face
This technology could be revolutionary in helping to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues and treatment.
A number of companies have now launched mental health programs in China, and some experts estimate that China's AI medical tech will soon surpass the United States in adoption and sophistication. With their psychiatric care shortage in the region, it's expected that VR will quickly move in to fill the void, enabling China to make significant strides in this area of innovation.
Researchers in the United States have also been busy exploring the potential for virtual reality technology to be used with treatment for PTSD; it's been helping army vets to safely relive their experiences overseas. There are hundreds of millions of people around the world who struggle with mental or neurological disorders and it's exciting to consider that this technology could prove useful in helping those individuals, there is great potential here.
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