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COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus

BACKGROUND: Living in the time of the COVID-19 means experiencing not only a global health emergency but also extreme psychological stress with potential emotional side effects such as sadness, grief, irritability, and mood swings. Crucially, lockdown and confinement measures isolate people who beco...

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Autores principales: Riva, Giuseppe, Bernardelli, Luca, Browning, Matthew H. E. M., Castelnuovo, Gianluca, Cavedoni, Silvia, Chirico, Alice, Cipresso, Pietro, de Paula, Dirce Maria Bengel, Di Lernia, Daniele, Fernández-Álvarez, Javier, Figueras-Puigderrajols, Natàlia, Fuji, Kei, Gaggioli, Andrea, Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Jose, Hong, Upyong, Mancuso, Valentina, Mazzeo, Milena, Molinari, Enrico, Moretti, Luciana F., Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B., Pagnini, Francesco, Pedroli, Elisa, Repetto, Claudia, Sforza, Francesca, Stramba-Badiale, Chiara, Tuena, Cosimo, Malighetti, Clelia, Villani, Daniela, Wiederhold, Brenda K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7538634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33173511
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.563319
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author Riva, Giuseppe
Bernardelli, Luca
Browning, Matthew H. E. M.
Castelnuovo, Gianluca
Cavedoni, Silvia
Chirico, Alice
Cipresso, Pietro
de Paula, Dirce Maria Bengel
Di Lernia, Daniele
Fernández-Álvarez, Javier
Figueras-Puigderrajols, Natàlia
Fuji, Kei
Gaggioli, Andrea
Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Jose
Hong, Upyong
Mancuso, Valentina
Mazzeo, Milena
Molinari, Enrico
Moretti, Luciana F.
Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B.
Pagnini, Francesco
Pedroli, Elisa
Repetto, Claudia
Sforza, Francesca
Stramba-Badiale, Chiara
Tuena, Cosimo
Malighetti, Clelia
Villani, Daniela
Wiederhold, Brenda K.
author_facet Riva, Giuseppe
Bernardelli, Luca
Browning, Matthew H. E. M.
Castelnuovo, Gianluca
Cavedoni, Silvia
Chirico, Alice
Cipresso, Pietro
de Paula, Dirce Maria Bengel
Di Lernia, Daniele
Fernández-Álvarez, Javier
Figueras-Puigderrajols, Natàlia
Fuji, Kei
Gaggioli, Andrea
Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Jose
Hong, Upyong
Mancuso, Valentina
Mazzeo, Milena
Molinari, Enrico
Moretti, Luciana F.
Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B.
Pagnini, Francesco
Pedroli, Elisa
Repetto, Claudia
Sforza, Francesca
Stramba-Badiale, Chiara
Tuena, Cosimo
Malighetti, Clelia
Villani, Daniela
Wiederhold, Brenda K.
author_sort Riva, Giuseppe
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Living in the time of the COVID-19 means experiencing not only a global health emergency but also extreme psychological stress with potential emotional side effects such as sadness, grief, irritability, and mood swings. Crucially, lockdown and confinement measures isolate people who become the first and the only ones in charge of their own mental health: people are left alone facing a novel and potentially lethal situation, and, at the same time, they need to develop adaptive strategies to face it, at home. In this view, easy-to-use, inexpensive, and scientifically validated self-help solutions aiming to reduce the psychological burden of coronavirus are extremely necessary. AIMS: This pragmatic trial aims to provide the evidence that a weekly self-help virtual reality (VR) protocol can help overcome the psychological burden of the Coronavirus by relieving anxiety, improving well-being, and reinforcing social connectedness. The protocol will be based on the “Secret Garden” 360 VR video online (www.covidfeelgood.com) which simulates a natural environment aiming to promote relaxation and self-reflection. Three hundred sixty–degree or spherical videos allow the user to control the viewing direction. In this way, the user can explore the content from any angle like a panorama and experience presence and immersion. The “Secret Garden” video is combined with daily exercises that are designed to be experienced with another person (not necessarily physically together), to facilitate a process of critical examination and eventual revision of core assumptions and beliefs related to personal identity, relationships, and goals. METHODS: This is a multicentric, pragmatic pilot randomized controlled trial involving individuals who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and underwent a lockdown and quarantine procedures. The trial is approved by the Ethics Committee of the Istituto Auxologico Italiano. Each research group in all the countries joining the pragmatic trial, aims at enrolling at least 30 individuals in the experimental group experiencing the self-help protocol, and 30 in the control group, over a period of 3 months to verify the feasibility of the intervention. CONCLUSION: The goal of this protocol is for VR to become the “surgical mask” of mental health treatment. Although surgical masks do not provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection against the coronavirus compared with FFP2 or FFP3 masks, surgical masks are very effective in protecting others from the wearer’s respiratory emissions. The goal of the VR protocol is the same: not necessarily to solve complex mental health problems but rather to improve well-being and preserve social connectedness through the beneficial social effects generated by positive emotions.
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spelling pubmed-75386342020-11-09 COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus Riva, Giuseppe Bernardelli, Luca Browning, Matthew H. E. M. Castelnuovo, Gianluca Cavedoni, Silvia Chirico, Alice Cipresso, Pietro de Paula, Dirce Maria Bengel Di Lernia, Daniele Fernández-Álvarez, Javier Figueras-Puigderrajols, Natàlia Fuji, Kei Gaggioli, Andrea Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Jose Hong, Upyong Mancuso, Valentina Mazzeo, Milena Molinari, Enrico Moretti, Luciana F. Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B. Pagnini, Francesco Pedroli, Elisa Repetto, Claudia Sforza, Francesca Stramba-Badiale, Chiara Tuena, Cosimo Malighetti, Clelia Villani, Daniela Wiederhold, Brenda K. Front Psychiatry Psychiatry BACKGROUND: Living in the time of the COVID-19 means experiencing not only a global health emergency but also extreme psychological stress with potential emotional side effects such as sadness, grief, irritability, and mood swings. Crucially, lockdown and confinement measures isolate people who become the first and the only ones in charge of their own mental health: people are left alone facing a novel and potentially lethal situation, and, at the same time, they need to develop adaptive strategies to face it, at home. In this view, easy-to-use, inexpensive, and scientifically validated self-help solutions aiming to reduce the psychological burden of coronavirus are extremely necessary. AIMS: This pragmatic trial aims to provide the evidence that a weekly self-help virtual reality (VR) protocol can help overcome the psychological burden of the Coronavirus by relieving anxiety, improving well-being, and reinforcing social connectedness. The protocol will be based on the “Secret Garden” 360 VR video online (www.covidfeelgood.com) which simulates a natural environment aiming to promote relaxation and self-reflection. Three hundred sixty–degree or spherical videos allow the user to control the viewing direction. In this way, the user can explore the content from any angle like a panorama and experience presence and immersion. The “Secret Garden” video is combined with daily exercises that are designed to be experienced with another person (not necessarily physically together), to facilitate a process of critical examination and eventual revision of core assumptions and beliefs related to personal identity, relationships, and goals. METHODS: This is a multicentric, pragmatic pilot randomized controlled trial involving individuals who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and underwent a lockdown and quarantine procedures. The trial is approved by the Ethics Committee of the Istituto Auxologico Italiano. Each research group in all the countries joining the pragmatic trial, aims at enrolling at least 30 individuals in the experimental group experiencing the self-help protocol, and 30 in the control group, over a period of 3 months to verify the feasibility of the intervention. CONCLUSION: The goal of this protocol is for VR to become the “surgical mask” of mental health treatment. Although surgical masks do not provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection against the coronavirus compared with FFP2 or FFP3 masks, surgical masks are very effective in protecting others from the wearer’s respiratory emissions. The goal of the VR protocol is the same: not necessarily to solve complex mental health problems but rather to improve well-being and preserve social connectedness through the beneficial social effects generated by positive emotions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7538634/ /pubmed/33173511 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.563319 Text en Copyright © 2020 Riva, Bernardelli, Browning, Castelnuovo, Cavedoni, Chirico, Cipresso, de Paula, Di Lernia, Fernández-Álvarez, Figueras-Puigderrajols, Fuji, Gaggioli, Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Hong, Mancuso, Mazzeo, Molinari, Moretti, Ortiz de Gortari, Pagnini, Pedroli, Repetto, Sforza, Stramba-Badiale, Tuena, Malighetti, Villani and Wiederhold http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Riva, Giuseppe
Bernardelli, Luca
Browning, Matthew H. E. M.
Castelnuovo, Gianluca
Cavedoni, Silvia
Chirico, Alice
Cipresso, Pietro
de Paula, Dirce Maria Bengel
Di Lernia, Daniele
Fernández-Álvarez, Javier
Figueras-Puigderrajols, Natàlia
Fuji, Kei
Gaggioli, Andrea
Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Jose
Hong, Upyong
Mancuso, Valentina
Mazzeo, Milena
Molinari, Enrico
Moretti, Luciana F.
Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B.
Pagnini, Francesco
Pedroli, Elisa
Repetto, Claudia
Sforza, Francesca
Stramba-Badiale, Chiara
Tuena, Cosimo
Malighetti, Clelia
Villani, Daniela
Wiederhold, Brenda K.
COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus
title COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus
title_full COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus
title_fullStr COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus
title_full_unstemmed COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus
title_short COVID Feel Good—An Easy Self-Help Virtual Reality Protocol to Overcome the Psychological Burden of Coronavirus
title_sort covid feel good—an easy self-help virtual reality protocol to overcome the psychological burden of coronavirus
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7538634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33173511
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.563319
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