XR Therapeutics: New VR platform for accessible treatment of phobias and anxiety

**Public description**

XR Therapeutics is a start-up company, spun out of Newcastle University which has been based on over 9 years of clinical and academic research. Our service combines traditional CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) with gradual exposure therapy to treat phobias and situation specific anxiety. Our solution is delivered using VR (Virtual Reality) technology within a fully immersive environment. The unique treatment can be adapted by the therapist in real time via a tablet, as we work alongside clinicians and end users to tailor scenes based on the needs of the recipient. Administering traditional CBT to an individual can take anywhere between 12 to 20 sessions before the patient observes noticeable impact. Our treatment can shorten this to 4 sessions over a 2-week period, and when treating phobias, this can be achieved in just 1 session. XR Therapeutics is commercially delivering VR supported therapies. This means that we already have established commercial relationships with private health insurers, therapists and major NHS trusts, giving us a clear route to market for an expanded solution.

This is an 18-month project that will use the funding received to make our intervention remotely accessible via a device agnostic platform.

We will do this by developing our already proven therapy model to be suitable for delivery on headsets and other devices, within Metaverse settings, enabling interaction between therapist and patient even when they are based in different geographical locations. We will also develop the tools to support patients with post-intervention ongoing symptom management using AR assets.

**Work to Date:** Our platform initially focused on supporting autistic adults and children with phobias. Two tranches of previous Innovate UK support enabled us to establish the spinout and expand our innovation to the wider market of neurotypical adults. We are now successfully delivering VR therapies through commercial relationships with NHS Trusts, private treatments, and private insurers.

**Need:** Official mental health waiting lists have doubled as a result of Covid to 1.6M people. However, NHS England has estimated that 8M people who would benefit from mental health services are unable to access them due to lack of capacity (NHS England, 2021). This means that people are waiting upwards of 9 months to begin treatment. We use our intervention to support healthcare providers by supplying a more efficient solution that patients only have to wait up to 2 weeks for and can be completed within 2-4 weeks through 4 sessions.