Innovations in Virtual Reality for Treating Acrophobia: Design and Implementation
Wai Yie Leong, Yuan Zhi Leong, Rajendra Kumar · 2025
Acrophobia is an intense fear of heights that plagues a substantial segment of the world population. Classic treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy help the patients but come with the constraint that they are not accessible to everyone and not all patients stick to them. This paper explores the design and implementation of virtual reality (VR) in treating acrophobia through an immersive and controlled setting for graded exposure. New avenues for patients to confront their fears have been opened up by the integration of multisensory feedback and customizable scenarios in VR. This paper details a comprehensive analysis of the design, implementation, results, and comparative effectiveness of treatments designed based on VR for acrophobia.