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Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising technological intervention for anxiety disorders. However, there are no existing standards and best practices to evaluate the effectiveness of environments to achieve their intervention goals. The purpose of this study was to develop a VR intervention for student veterans with social anxiety disorder and test feasibility utilizing a three-stage development model. The development of a therapeutic VR environment may benefit from an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers from various fields of study. Utilizing three stages of prototyping with two virtual reality platforms, fully immersive video (n = 6) and three-dimensional (3-D) immersive virtual reality (n = 8), the research team designed an intervention for student veterans with social anxiety disorder, testing bio-reactivity of participants. Results of prototyping include user feedback validating increased stress levels and increased bio-reactivity specifically in galvanic skin response and heart rate elevation. Implications include the use of 360° video for prototyping 3-D virtual reality interventions.
Funding
The authors would like to thank students Caleb Pase, Erik Martinez, Benjamin Garrard, Benjamin Munoz, and Kevin Kim for their valuable contribution in the development of the 360 Video and VR environments. This work has been supported in part by the Texas State University Multi-disciplinary Internal Research Grant (MIRG).