To control the voices that haunt patients with mental disorders, Professor Julian Leff and his team have implemented a new avatar therapy. It would allow schizophrenics to control these heady and disturbing voices. In 2012, a study of 16 had shown conclusive results. In 2015, large-scale clinical trials will be set up to evaluate this system.
Auditory hallucinations are long-lasting and remain a common problem in the treatment of serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. About 25% of people with this mental disorder live with voices and are inhabited by delusions of persecution. Despite treatment with antipsychotic drugs, patients’ ability to work and relate is markedly impaired.
“To remedy the negative consequences on the lives of patients, we have developed and evaluated a new therapy based on technology and avatars” explains Professor Julian Leff.
Computer avatars are first designed by patients to shape the voice they hear. Then, the therapists work to encourage the patients to oppose the voice and to get rid of it. “This new form of therapy allows each patient to create the avatar of the voice to interact with it. The therapist promotes a dialogue between the patient and the avatar. Then the doctor takes control of the digital incarnation and dialogues through behavioral therapy with his patient,” explains the author of the study.
For this study, the professor compared 14 patients treated with avatar therapy and 12 patients treated with standard antipsychotic drugs and occasional therapist visits. Only 16 of the patients completed the study. At the end of this treatment, the patients heard fewer and fewer voices, were less anxious and suicidal than patients on medication.
“The beauty of this therapy lies in its simplicity and its brevity,” concludes Professor Thomas Craig, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, who will confront this therapy with a group of 142 patients. “Most of the psychological therapies indicated in this disease are expensive and require several months of investment. »