Avatars Provide New Treatment for Schizophrenia, Helps Control Voices Patients Hear

Some scientists believe that computer-generated avatars may help treat patients with schizophrenia.

The new study, conducted by researchers at the University of London, could provide insightful new treatments that may be a "quick and effective therapy" to help patients reduce both the frequency and severity of their episodes.

Sixteen patients underwent up to seven 30-minute sessions in a pilot study conducted by the university. All of the patients reported a reduction in the frequency and severity of voices they heard, and three didn't hear any voices at all following the treatment.

Julian Leff, a professor of mental health sciences at UCL and who developed the project said, via The Guardian, that the avatar represents a real person and can be helpful in dealing with the voices patients typically hear.

"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."

Leff said that every therapy session is recorded on an MP3 player so that patients have a therapist at the touch of the button by listening to their own voices.

"We've found that this helps them to recognize that the voices originate within their own mind and reinforces their control over the hallucinations," Leff said.

The Daily Mail notes that a larger study will be conducted at the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry, and will begin enrolling patients in early July. The first results are expected towards the end of 2015.

The National Institute of Mental Health notes that in any given year, approximately 2.4 million American adults or 1.1 percent of the population in the United States that is age 18 and older have schizophrenia. The disorder-  a chronic, severe, and disabling mental disorder characterized by deficits in thought processes, perceptions, and emotional responsiveness. -affects men and women with equal frequency. It first appears in men in their late teens or early twenties, while women are generally affected in their twenties or early thirties.