Abstract
Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is well treatable, many people do not get the desired treatment due to barriers to care (such as stigma and cost). This paper presents a system that bridges this gap by enabling patients to follow therapy at home. A therapist is only involved remotely, to monitor progress and serve as a safety net. With this system, patients can recollect their memories in a digital diary and recreate them in a 3D WorldBuilder. Throughout the therapy, a virtual agent is present to inform and guide patients through the sessions, employing an ontology-based question module for recollecting traumatic memories to further elicit a detailed memory recollection. In a usability study with former PTSD patients (n = 4), these questions were found useful for memory recollection. Moreover, the usability of the whole system was rated positively. This system has the potential to be a valuable addition to the spectrum of PTSD treatments, offering a novel type of home therapy assisted by a virtual agent.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 41:125 |
Journal | Journal of Medical Systems |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Conversational agent
- E-health
- Mental health
- Ontology
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Question system
- Relational agent
- Therapy system
- Virtual agent
- Virtual reality
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Dive into the research topics of 'A Therapy System for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Using a Virtual Agent and Virtual Storytelling to Reconstruct Traumatic Memories'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
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Ontologies traumatic memories
Tielman, M. L. (Creator), TU Delft - 4TU.ResearchData, 20 Nov 2017
DOI: 10.4121/UUID:7BA977EF-891F-419B-983A-3AA8126E3A2E
Dataset/Software: Dataset