AR-Based Mobile Applications for Exposure Therapy

Facing one's fears could be a way forward for people whose anxieties debilitate them. Exposure-based treatment is an evidence-based approach to reducing pathological anxiety. As a part of treatment, therapists who practice exposure therapy create environments to provide opportunities for patients to experience (and ultimately, overcome) the anxiety that arises for patients in feared situations. More than 50% of anxiety patients, however, never receive treatment. We developed an Android application that uses augmented reality (AR) for providing opportunities for exposure to spiders, a relatively common presentation of specific phobia. With this app, users can engage with exposure therapy without visits to a therapist. In the next phase, we will conduct a user study to determine whether mobile applications equipped with augmented reality technologies can be used to reduce the anxiety response to a feared stimulus (i.e., a tarantula), and whether the app is considered easy to use and acceptable. In this poster, we will provide details about the mobile app and describe the study setup.