
Virtual therapy 'helps with depression', researchers say - corneliusjac
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35558447
======
tetheno
It's an interesting experiment. The number of patients (15) is very low
though, there is no control.. but it's good that people is working on this.

Virtual therapy may be a very good choice for people with addiction or
phobias. A cheap way to diminish the cue reactivity in relation to the object
of addiction or offer exposure therapy for phobias/anxiety.

I have been working for some time now on the application of CBT techniques and
quantified self (for me, modern applied stoicism) with the objective of
improving virtuous behavior. I have not been very successful developing an
interface which makes it easy/appealing enough to use it multiple times a day.
Maybe they're into something converting those CBT exercises into a virtual
"game".

------
amelius
> They were told to say compassionate phrases to the child to try and comfort
> and console it.

I guess you need to be good with children in order for this to work. (Perhaps
that is the reason why 2/3 of the study subjects were women).

But it sounds interesting.

~~~
chris_st
> I guess you need to be good with children in order for this to work.

Not quite sure what you mean by this -- I'd think that saying compassionate
things is not age-specific? Can you think of compassionate things to say to
anyone?

