Hyderabad start-up ‘Manaha’ leverages VR and AI to treat patients with extreme phobias

Individuals with phobias of heights, confined spaces, or flying can now receive treatment in-clinic, guided by an AI-powered avatar alongside a professional, enhancing their therapeutic experience.

Hyderabad: It is often a challenge to treat individuals suffering from phobias, as they struggle to confront the situations that trigger their anxiety. Frequently exposing them to real-world environments to train in handling stress is always not practical.

What if patients with phobia are immersed in a virtual reality (VR) experience that mimics their triggers, and guided by an AI-powered Avatar of a therapist/doctor on the screen? The therapist expertly coaches them on how to manage anxiety in a calm and controlled manner, while the patient is just sitting in the hospital.

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This is what a Hyderabad-based mental health services start-up ‘Manaha’, backed by VR and AI technologies, is doing to help their patients suffering from phobias of various kinds.

Individuals who have phobia of heights, extremely closed spaces like lifts, flying in airplanes, afraid of travelling on an elevator etc can now benefit from this technology by just sitting in a clinic, expertly guided by an AI-powered Avatar and of course in the physical presence of an expert.

“If an individual is uncomfortable to fly or even sit in an aircraft, it becomes quite difficult for care givers to take them to airports frequently for gradual exposure. Realising this, we started exposing our patients to basic flying simulations, such as sitting in a plane with no turbulence, taking-off or landing in the presence of an AI-powered Avatar, which guides them. The results are very encouraging and we are planning to first present in national and international psychiatric seminars,” says senor psychiatrist and founder of Manaha, Dr K Jyothirmayi.

The care givers at Manaha have developed a variety of simulations for patients to deal with their anxieties and fears. For persons with phobia of flying, the psychiatrists in collaboration with AI and VR experts have developed exposure simulation scenarios like paragliding, airports, heights, closed spaced like lifts, elevators etc.

“The AI-powered Avatar guides the patient, who is in a clinical-set, to remain calm, create supportive environment, encourage to practice anxiety management strategies like controlled breathing, mindfulness, and grounding techniques, as they navigate the experiences virtually,” says Dr Jyothirmayi.

The mental health specialists have collaborators to develop monitoring devices to track anxiety levels in real-time using Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), which helps them track how the patients are coping with the exposure.

“Our studies have indicated that patients were able to tolerate mild levels of anxiety during the virtual exposure without overwhelming distress. They demonstrated effective use of coping strategies and showed a willingness to continue with more challenging exposures,” Dr Jyothirmayi points out.