Virtual Reality Therapy Innovates ADHD treatment

Innovative Virtual Reality therapy promises great success for treatment and rehabilitation of ADHD symptom.

By applying techniques used in cognitive behaviour therapy into an immersive virtual environment, researchers at the Babes-Bolyai University, in Romania has developed a program that promises great success for ADHD treatment.

Professor Daniel David, a specialist on virtual reality therapy at the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Babes-Bolyai University, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, has together with a team of researchers developed a new concept for  a “Virtual Classroom Intervention” system for ADHD.

Previously, the “Virtual Classroom” systems for ADHD were mainly focused on assessment rather than interventions. It is the first program for ADHD treatment that allows clinicians to use Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) techniques in an immersive, dynamic 3D environment where interaction, behavioural tracking and performance recording is possible.

An initial testing implemented by researchers David Opris, Raluca Anton, & Anca Dobrean, involving eight boys diagnosed with ADHD (6-12 years of age) and 10 non diagnosed boys, suggested that the “Virtual Classroom Intervention” system provides a cost-effective and time reducing tool for attention performance measurements and treatment, beyond the existing traditional methods.

“The ability to implement the CBT techniques designed for a real classroom in a virtual one, combined with the possibility of improved control, safety, measurements, time reducing, makes this application a very innovative one”, Professor Daniel David says. “One of the main advantages of this new program is that the procedure is highly accurate and requires a significantly shorter time compared to using a traditional approach”, David Opris adds.

The “Virtual Classroom Intervention” system for ADHD” is a collaboration project between the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, San Diego, California, USA, Digital Mediaworks, Canada and the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy / International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health at the Babes-Bolyai University, Romania.

For details see: http://www.psytech.ro