Precision exposure therapy: Personalisation strategies and implementation of VR-based exposure therapy in mental health services

Fear-related symptoms are highly prevalent and central to mental health disorders, contributing to reduced wellbeing, increased healthcare costs, and substantial losses in productivity. Exposure therapy is widely recognised as an effective treatment for these conditions. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) offers advantages over traditional approaches by enabling controlled and precise exposure, i.e., personalised to individual patients' needs. Personalised VRET also holds the promise to be flexibly integrated across treatment phases, including early intervention, ambulatory therapy, and at-home use.
Two key challenges limit full realisation of these developments. First, there is a lack of systematic knowledge on how to effectively personalise VRET, particularly given the wide range of available content and the need to optimise treatment precision while minimising adverse effects, such as cybersickness. Second, there is insufficient knowledge on how to implement personalised VRET effectively in clinical practice, especially its ambulatory and home-based care, and of which factors influence sustainable integration.
This project aims to first develop an evidence- and practice-based personalisation framework for VRET, and second, to develop, test, and evaluate a tailored implementation strategy. To accomplish this, Work Package 1 focuses on identifying personalisation parameters through a systematic literature review and iterative development using usability and user experience studies. Work Package 2 focuses on implementation, using qualitative methods including interviews to identify the organisational, technical, and clinical conditions necessary for an optimised implementation.
This project extends an established multidisciplinary consortium connected through the Academic Collaborative Centre Digital Health and Mental Wellbeing, consisting of academic (Tilburg University), clinical (GGz Breburg), and industry (Psylaris) partners, supported by a sounding board with (inter)national partners with leading roles in VRET research and implementation.
Embedded in (inter)national networks, the consortium will disseminate knowledge through academic, professional, and educational channels, thereby impacting patient wellbeing and reducing the burden on mental healthcare systems.