(upbeat music)
- There is such a growing demand
for mental health services,
all the while, the number
of providers in the world
has remained relatively flat.
My name's Jon Sokell.
I'm co-founder and CEO of Limbix.
We make apps in VR for treating
mental health disorders.
We chose virtual reality because we saw
probably 20 years worth of research,
maybe 300 peer review publications
that had showed VR play
some sort of meaningful role
within mental health care.
Within cognitive behavioral therapy,
there is technique
called exposure therapy.
And exposure therapy is the
idea of flooding someone
with the thing that causes them to stress.
So a really simple example could be
if you're afraid to drive,
couldn't get behind the wheel.
- So this is the Limbix headset.
- Once that therapist
knows that you're ready
and comfortable to do this exposure,
the therapist might start
you off on a quiet street.
And so you're in your
virtual reality headset,
as a patient, and as the
therapist next to me,
as I'm going through this, as a patient,
all the while, sees what I
see in VR on their tablet.
- What we have here is
the tablet interface.
- And on that tablet, they
can choose that quiet street.
They can also choose a
busy road, like a highway
or a tunnel or something
much more anxiety inducing,
like a bridge.
And so what the therapist will slowly,
but surely gradually expose you to more
and more stressful environments.
And then, while I'm viewing
these and going through that,
that therapist is also
teaching me coping techniques
to be comfortable about what I'm doing
and things that I can
apply to my own life,
when I'm actually in the car afterwards.
There's much more serious
examples around PTSD
and other phobias as well,
where exposure therapy
can be really helpful.
- It's the 21st century exposure therapy.
It's as close as you get to real life,
without going into real life.
And the data shows that it works as well
as going into real life.
So for therapists, it's a beautiful tool.
- It's uncritically important, we think,
to take them through a
rigorous FDA process.
The alternative that
people have done to date
is basically making
direct to consumer apps.
You know, you don't wanna
send people on their own,
at home, to do things
that could potentially
make them worse.
And so, in the last couple
years, the FDA has rolled out
a new therapeutic class
called Prescription Digital Therapeutics.
And basically, the FDA is now attempting
to evaluate apps the same
way that they evaluate drugs,
make sure the that apps that doctors
and others are providing
have some sort of basis
of evidence that they work.
But really, it's about trying
to provide lots of access
for lots of different problems
because, ultimately, we wanna
make instruments available
around the world.
I think the way we improve
access to treatments
is cost effective technology
that can be democratized around the world.
Thanks for watching. If you liked this video
give it a like and subscribe to Freethink for more great videos every week.
