Small animal phobias (AP) are a type of specific phobia where there is an intense and persistent, excessive, or irrational fear in the presence of a particular small animal. One of the most effective techniques to overcome specific phobias is Exposure Therapy, where the patient is exposed to the object of fear repeatedly and gradually. However, it is difficult to carry out this type of therapy when there is no full control of the feared object and there is no way to ensure gradual exposure. The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of a self-applied exposure treatment for rat phobia called Thera. Thera is a verbally interactive virtual therapist assistant that uses smart devices to obtain contextual data. The treatment proposal was evaluated through a survey with 11 Mexican mental health professionals with experience working with patients with phobias. The results show that the specialists perceived the proposal as useful for the treatment of AP and that it would generate in patients an experience like that experienced with real objects of fear; they found the proposal to be useful to use; also, they showed a high intention to use it. In addition, they provided useful feedback on each of the proposed stages for the redesign of the proposed treatment.
Memo
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Online Interventionn은 Cost-effective하지만, Dropout Rate이 높아서 이를 줄일 필요성이 있음.
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Virtual Therapist Assistant(VTA): An application focused on the area of health therapies that uses an interaction with the user based on voice commands.
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EuTalk라는 Virtual Therapist 겸 Speech Assistant를 개발했음
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Multimedia Behavioral Avoidance Test (MBAT)
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실제 임상의사들에게 검증받는 실험 → Perceived Usefulness, User Experience, Relevance of the project, Ease of use, Intent to use, Accessibility 측정
