Preliminary explanatory headline: Virtual reality can be used to treat phobias and panic and anxiety disorders by creating a virtual environment where the patient can be repeatedly exposed to the stimulus of their fear and trained to become more accustomed to it (I am debating whether or not the underlined part is necessary as it makes the headline a bit long)

• I will begin by introducing what virtual reality is in the context of psychological treatment (maybe provide an embedded link for the benefit of those who wish to know more or require clarification)
• “VR offers a human-computer interaction paradigm in which users are no longer simply external observers of images on a computer screen but are active participants within a computer-generated three-dimensional virtual world. In virtual environments, the user experiences a sense of presence or immersion in the virtual environment. A sense of presence is also essential for conducting exposure therapy “– Rothbaum 2009
• I will also define exposure therapy (provide an embedded link for the benefit of those who wish to know more or require clarification)
• “psychotherapy that involves repeated real, visualized, or simulated exposure to or confrontation with a feared situation or object or a traumatic event or memory in order to achieve habituation and that is used especially in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, or phobias” – Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary 
• Then there will a brief introduction on how virtual reality and exposure therapy overlap
• Virtual reality exposure therapy is an alternate to in vivo or real life exposure to the stimulus that triggers a fearful reaction in the patient. For example, if you are afraid of spiders, the instead of confronting a real spider right off the bat, the patient has the choice to confront a virtual spider in a virtual environment that the psychologist will create and control. 
• Before the emergence of virtual reality 

First subheading: Virtual reality exposure therapy has been found to be as successful as in vivo exposure therapy 

• I will cite the following three studies and briefly summarize their methods and conclusions
• Virtual reality treatment versus exposure in vivo: a comparative evaluation in acrophobia - Emmelkamp PM1, Krijn M, Hulsbosch AM, de Vries S, Schuemie MJ, van der Mast CA
• Found that for treating acrophobia VR is a relatively cheap and effective alternative to in vivo therapy. Study composed of 33 patients suffering from the phobia and the virtual environment was based off the real environment 
• Virtual reality exposure therapy and standard (in vivo) exposure therapy in the treatment of fear of flying - Rothbaum BO1, Anderson P, Zimand E, Hodges L, Lang D, Wilson J
• This study exposed 75 patients to either VR exposure therapy (VRE), Standard in vivo exposure therapy (SE), or placed them on a wait list (WL) where they completed randomly assigned treatment following the waiting period (25 patients per treatment method). It was found that VRE and SE were essentially equivalent post treatment on standardized questionnaires, willingness to fly, anxiety ratings during the flight, self-ratings of improvement, and patient satisfaction with treatment. VRE was also fond superior to WL on all counts. Treatment gains were found to be maintained on follow- up assessments after 6 and 12 months 
• Affective outcomes of virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety and specific phobias: A meta-analysis - Thomas D. Parsons, Albert A. Rizzo
• “Given the currently available data, it appears that VRET is relatively effective from a psychotherapeutic standpoint in carefully selected patients. VRET can reduce anxiety and phobia symptoms …The meta-analytic findings parallel qualitative reviews revealing that VRET has potential for the treatment of anxiety and several specific phobias.”

Video interview here:

• Virtual reality is still  a relatively new treatment method that not many know about. Could you briefly summarize its possible pros and cons?
• What do you think about the future of virtual reality in treatment? Do you believe that its going to advance to the point that it will replace standard in vivo exposure therapy or not? 
• Or do you think that it will become a preliminary stage of treatment that can be used to get patients on the right track for treatment and then followed up with in vivo treatement? 
• What are some of the tings that a doctor considers when creating a possible virtual environment for therapy? What kinds of precautions are taken to ensure the patients safety?

Third subheading: Advantages of virtual reality therapy include cost, increased safety, control, and confidentially, convenience and ease of scheduling, and unlimited repetitions exposure to feared situations

• In vivo exposure therapy for phobias such as fear of flying can be expensive but VR exposure therapy is comparatively cheaper than buying plane ticket every time 
• There is also a greater chance for reimbursement from insurance as the sessions would be much shorter and the total cost will be much more bearable for the patient
• VR exposure therapy also can allow for countless repetitions and attempts because all you need to do is restart the computer to recreate the simulation once again. In vivo therapy does not allow for this with as much ease 
• VR exposure therapy also lets the doctor control the degree of exposure (ex. increase or decrease the number and size of spiders a patient with arachnophobia sees) and exercise complete dominion over all external factors as the treatment can always be conducted in the office
• It also makes scheduling much easier and can allow for multiple sessions on a weekly or monthly basis so that the patient can be treated faster
• Since therapy is always conducted in the office there is less danger of confidentially breaches or of public interference in treatment (ex. meeting a friend while outside for treatment)

Fourth subheading: The disadvantages to virtual reality exposure therapy are that you can have technological difficulties with the computer, its effectiveness is dependent on the patient, the technology required is expensive to manufacture, and administration requires doctors to have extra training and certification

• Should there be a glitch in the system, the flow of the session can be interrupted or the patient could suffer side effects. Proper administration of this treatment will require a lot of technological maintenance 
• Thought the sessions might be comparatively cheaper to in vivo, they are by no means cheap. The hardware and the creation of a virtual environment is expensive to create 
• As a result it has to be carefully judged when VR exposure therapy is a the best treatment route as not all patients are good candidates on whom this treatment will have effects
• Administration of this treatment will require doctors to undergo an extra state of training and preparation (which is also an expense) 

Fifth subheading: Virtual reality is a viable treatment option for phobias and requires further research and more societal acceptance so that in the future, it can have a greater positive impact on phobia treatment 

• VR exposure therapy requires more research so that it can be stream lined into a more flawless method of treatment
• There is also a need for more research upon how to distinguish patients upon whom VR exposure therapy is most likely to yield results 
• For this to occur it needs to gain more name recognition and societal acceptance – informative literature that can be given to the general public could help partially resolve this problem 
• We also need to support the further development of VR technology (such as Occulus Rift) in general because they could have possible benefits in medical treatment