Though the most popular application of virtual reality is in entertainment, like in movies and games, scientists are exploring its potential uses in the healthcare segment. A team of researchers in Cardiff University is looking at the possibility of applying virtual reality in the treatment of people with ‘visual vertigo’ — those who suffer from dizziness and nausea at places that have repetitive visual patterns, like supermarkets.

One of the hurdles in the treatment is knowing what the trigger is: it could be anything from multiple aisles and products in a department store to multiple apartments or the flow of a river. The trigger differs from one patient to another.“We do not know very much about what causes visual vertigo at the moment. There also are not many effective rehabilitation therapies. So the aim of our project is to try and understand those two things,” Georgina Powell of the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, told the BBC

The scientists believe that the different environments, presented to the patients by virtual reality, will help identify the trigger. Once the cause is known, specific rehabilitation therapies could be tailored for them . Virtual reality has also been found to be effective in the treatment of Phantom Limb Syndrome — the feeling of sensations like pain in limbs that don’t exist. It could also occur in people who have survived strokes and lost control over some part of their body. According to a report in Lancet, phantom limb syndrome patients who underwent VR therapies reported improvement in their condition after 12 sessions.
Scientists at the University of Southern California have been studying the effect of virtual reality on people with post-traumatic stress disorder. They say exposing such people to the trigger, in a controlled environment, helps alleviate symptoms. Controlled exposure through virtual reality is also used to condition human mind to conquer different phobias. For example, in New York, an entrepreneur, Tim Suzman, developed a VR app to get rid of the fear of spiders,CNN has reported.
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Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/Scientists-explore-medical-applications-of-virtual-reality/article17118528.ece

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