In recent years, even in the field of psychotherapy, the use of technology and the Internet is increasingly taking hold as a treatment tool for various disorders. In particular, virtual reality and the so -called Internet Delivered Cognitive Therapy They seem to be interesting tools that are demonstrating their effectiveness.
There virtual realityfor example, born as technology different decades ago, has recently had, thanks to IT development, a significant growth in different fields, such as that of video games and entertainment, but also of the clinic and psychotherapy.
For some years, the scientific works that have tested the effectiveness of technological tools in clinical practice have been several. In particular, virtual reality has been implemented in the field of phobias treatment, giving rise to a particular treatment protocol based on virtual exposure. In fact, it is now common practice to highlight between different exposure protocols: in vivo, in imagination and by virtue.
In an interesting article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.janxis.2016.06,007) Kampmann, Emmelkamp and Molina (2016) have proposed a review on the effective studies of these tools.
The authors conducted a destination for the effectiveness of some technological tools in the treatment of social anxiety. The study, which initially analyzed 206 studies, selected 37 for a total of 2991 participants; In particular, in accordance with the criteria of the article, studies that used the Internet Delivered Cognitive Therapy (21 studies), exposure with virtual reality (3 studies) and Cognitive Bias Editation (13 studies) were included.
The destination highlighted that the patients who had received the Internet Delivered Cognitive Therapy And virtual reality showed a reduction in symptoms compared to controls.
By comparing the different types of intervention, the Internet Delivered Cognitive Therapy has shown a slight advantage, even if virtual reality has given similar results, while the only one Cognitive Bias Editation It does not seem to be particularly effective, unless it is administered in the laboratory.
In conclusion, the study, like others, highlights how new technologies are effective tools for the treatment of social anxiety disorder And perhaps it opens the way to a possible revolution of clinical practice.
