Digital avatars may help treat schizophrenia

A digital avatar therapy could help treat schizophrenia by controlling the voices patients hear inside their heads while hallucinating, scientists say.
The computer-based system being developed at the University College London (UCL) in the UK could provide quick and effective therapy that is far more successful than current pharmaceutical treatments, helping to reduce the frequency and severity of episodes of schizophrenia.
In an early pilot of this approach involving 16 patients and up to seven, 30 minute sessions of therapy, almost all of the patients reported an improvement in the frequency and severity of the voices that they hear.
Three of the patients stopped hearing voices completely after experiencing 16, 13 and 3.5 years of auditory hallucinations, respectively. The avatar does not address the patients' delusions directly, but the study found that they do improve as an overall effect of the therapy.

The team has now received a 1.3 million pounds Translation Award to refine the system and conduct a larger scale, randomised study to evaluate this novel approach to schizophrenia therapy.
The first stage in the therapy is for the patient to create a computer-based avatar, by choosing the face and voice of the entity they believe is talking to them.

The system then synchronises the avatar's lips with its speech, enabling a therapist to speak to the patient through the avatar in real time. The therapist encourages the patient to oppose the voice and gradually teaches them to take control of their hallucinations.

"Even though patients interact with the avatar as though it was a real person, because they have created it, they know that it cannot harm them, as opposed to the voices, which often threaten to kill or harm them and their family. As a result the therapy helps patients gain the confidence and courage to confront the avatar, and their persecutor," Julian Leff, who developed the therapy said.
"We record every therapy session on MP3 so that the patient essentially has a therapist in their pocket which they can listen to at any time when harassed by the voices. We've found that this helps them to recognise that the voices originate within their own mind and reinforces their control over the hallucinations," researchers said.

Schizophrenia affects around 1 in 100 people worldwide, the most common symptoms being delusions (false beliefs) and auditory hallucinations (hearing voices).