CyberTherapy Conference Archives

A decade ago, CyberTherapy, then still in its infancy, only existed as a specialized Virtual Reality and Behavioral Healthcare Symposium at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) Conference. At that first session, Dr. Ralph Lamson presented a small study on virtual reality (VR) exposure for treatment of acrophobia in ten participants. It is now clear that in 1996, we had only begun to realize what promise might lie ahead for both VR technology and the CyberTherapy Conference. Much has changed over the past ten years and we have now tapped further into VR’s potential than many of us could have ever imagined. Today, researchers from around the world are busy completing hundreds of trials, applying VR for such varied disorders as Anxiety, Eating Disorders and Obesity, Addictions, Erectile Dysfunction, Autism and Schizophrenia. In addition, VR for Neurorehabilitation and Physical Rehabilitation has shown definite success, as has VR for other such diverse areas as Pain Distraction (both acute and chronic), Education, Training, and Physical Disabilities. I am proud to report that as VR’s use in Behavioral Healthcare has grown, so has the CyberTherapy Conference. What began as a specialized symposium at MMVR concerned mainly with conceptual matters, has now grown into the largest program on controlled clinical trials of VR and other advanced technologies in the areas of behavioral healthcare, rehabilitation, disabilities, education, and training. To celebrate a decade of Virtual Reality Research, the CyberTherapy Archives serves as a collection of all abstracts from the past ten years.