Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Dec 29, 2020
Date Accepted: Mar 19, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Mar 26, 2021
Virtual Reality Human-Human Interface to deliver psychotherapy to people experiencing auditory verbal hallucinations, a development and usability study.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Digital technologies have expanded the possibilities of Psychotherapy, especially for the treatment of Schizophrenia with the Avatar Therapy. Despite its vast possibilities, this treatment method is still not disseminated; the operability and functionality are unknow.
Objective:
We aim to study the usability of a therapeutic virtual reality human-human interface created in a game engine with psychiatric hospital staff.
Methods:
Participants introduced to the therapeutic platform in a "hands-on" mode. The System Usability Scale (SUS) was employed for the evaluation of the system. We will conduct descriptive statistics, chi-square test, an ANOVA, and multilevel factor analysis for statistical evaluation.
Results:
In total, 109 staff members were introduced to the therapeutic tool and completed the SUS. The mean SUS global score was 81.49±11.1. Among the professional groups, psychotherapists (86.44±8.79) scored significantly higher (F (2, 106) = 6.136; p = 0.003) than nursing staff (79.01±13.30) and administrative personnel (77.98 ± 10.72). A Multilevel Factorial Analysis (MLFA) shows a different factor structure for each profession.
Conclusions:
By different professions, the usability of a digital psychotherapeutic tool developed using a game engine achieves the benchmark for an excellent system, scoring even highest among the professional target group. The usability of the system, therefore, also depending on the professional background of the operator. With gaming technology and platforms, it is possible to create and customisation of novel therapeutic psychotherapeutic approaches. Clinical Trial: clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04099940)
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