XRHealth, a provider of extended reality and therapeutic health applications, today announced that its platform will now also treat mental health conditions and substance abuse issues using virtual reality.

XRHealth is a virtual clinic that uses a virtual reality headset to act as a telehealth clinic to provide remote therapy for patients in the comfort of their own homes. After an evaluation with a licensed clinician, a treatment plan with XRHealth can be made and the device shipped out.

The XRHealth virtual clinic can assist patients in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, pain management, ADHD treatment, anxiety treatment, post-COVID rehab, memory training and even provide support groups.

“During COVID-19, we have seen a spike in the use of narcotics and an overwhelming need to address anxiety and stress,” says Eran Orr, chief executive of XRHealth. “There are many platforms to treat patient mental health conditions, but we believe that the 3D medium is more powerful than a 2D interface and can reach more patients effectively.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported as of June 2020, that 13% of adults in the United States had begun to experiment with or increased drug use in order to cope with the pandemic. That has led to an 18% increase in overdoses.

To address this issue, XRHealth has added additional mental health and substance abuse treatment with both individual counseling and group therapy options to its platform.

The immersive nature of virtual reality can make people feel like they are “really there” even from the living room. This can be helpful for people who may be feeling locked in or lonely after months of pandemic anxiety – even as the U.S. slowly begins to get back to normal.

Although this doesn’t replace actually getting out of the house, it can be safer, reduces anxiety and increases convenience. It also provides a great deal of data for clinicians to use for treatment. Most important, the XRHealth platform is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act rules and collects real-time patient data, which provides extensive monitoring for progress tracking.

XRHealth previously opened the first VR telehealth clinic for neurological therapy to patients in their own homes in several states across the U.S. in 2020 and started offering VR services in Israel to coronavirus quarantined patients in the same year.

Virtual reality has also been used in 2017 in South Korea by Samsung Co. Ltd. to help fight the rising rates of depression and suicide among the country’s population. The technology has been seen as a breakthrough method for bringing people together remotely by making it more convenient and easier for individuals to get to clinics and creating on-demand treatment, especially for depressed individuals to seek treatment.

The mental health and substance abuse treatment therapy portions of the XRHealth platform will be available in Massachusetts beginning today and in other states in the coming months.

Image: XRHealth