Summary: Even the military use of stressful situations imaginative techniques to be ready, we can now do with augmented reality.

virtual reality scenarios were used successfully in the treatment of patients with delusions of persecution.
A group of psychologists and psychiatrists of the University of Oxford has exposed 30 people with paranoid disorders to two virtual situations, one set in a subway car and into an elevator.
The treatment gave immediate benefits, which have been described in the journal British Journal of Psychiatry.
After wearing the viewers to the volunteers, the researchers asked half of them to maintain an attitude on the defensive as they moved within the virtual environment; the other half was instead asked to abandon defenses and do things that normally respect the space of others, we would like to approach the avatar of the virtual characters and secure long into the eyes.
Patients in the first group have therefore retained the same behaviors they had in reality (for example, avoid eye contact with the compartment companions); the second group have dared more, peering avatars closely and studying beyond the normal "social decorum".
Encouraging signs.
After only half an hour of treatment, the members of the second group reported greater benefits: the end of one day of testing, more than half of them did not show any more, in the situations described, severe paranoid delusions of a few hours before.
Even patients in the first group have reported partial (but less obvious) results.
Being able to see people in a different way has helped patients understand that there was nothing to be afraid of.
Just then a half hour treatment in virtual reality to free yourself from a serious psychiatric disorder?
Certainly not, but the small preliminary study demonstrates the potential of these simulations, more and more accessible, for the treatment of certain diseases.
If the 30-minute simulations effects (no follow-up, that is, subsequent calls) are so marked, use them as long-term therapy may lead to significant benefits.
People with paranoid disorders often can not leave the house for fear of human contact.
A situation that results in isolation, which in turn makes things worse.
Being exposed to the situation that triggers anxiety and delusions, but strongly perceived to be safe, provides useful tools for when live must then deal with it '. "
Similar treatments are already used for several years, for example, to help overcome the fear of flying or treatment of eating disorders.

From Focus