The Effectiveness of Virtual reality on the Decrease of Aviophobia in People Suffering from Aviophobia

Aviophobia is a common debilitative fear and it is recognized as a specific situational fear which affects billions of people in the world. The aim of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of virtual reality therapeutic method on the decrease of aviophobia in those who suffer from it. The research method was experimental with pretest, posttest and control group format. The statistical society composed of 40 individuals suffering from aviophobia who referred from counseling centers and airports of Tehran to Tehran Aerospace Research Institute (ARI). 20 individuals who had the required criteria for aviophobia diagnosis put randomly into experimental (9 female and 1 male individuals) and control (10 female individuals) group. The experimental group received 10 20-minute sessions of virtual reality therapy during 5 weeks individually, that each session was 20 minute. The control group didn’t receive any intervention. Aviophobia questionnaire was administered before and after intervention on both experimental and control groups. The data were analyzed through Covariance analysis and two-way ANOVA. The results of Covariance analysis indicated that the virtual reality therapeutic method had a significant effect on the decrease of aviophobia. Moreover, the results of two-month follow up via two-way ANOVA implied that the decrease in aviophobia has remained after a lapse of two months. This investigation showed that virtual reality therapeutic method has a significant and reliable effect on the decrease of aviophobia and can be used as a new treatment strategy.