Avatar Therapy
The hallucinations in the form of persecutory voices that patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia often hear have significant and debilitating effects. Avatar Therapy for Voice Hearers uses virtual reality to recreate the faces and voices of the patients’ persecutors in the form of avatars. It is an innovative treatment that allows patients who hear voices to interact with an external representation of their hallucinations in the virtual environment.
Responsible researcher Alexandre Dumais et Stéphane Potvin
Procedure
How does Avatar Therapy work?
This approach consists of nine 60-minute sessions, each focusing on a single voice. Using virtual reality, the persecutor is rendered in 3D based on the patient’s perception. A system also adjusts the psychiatrist’s voice to resemble that of the hallucination. Each session begins with a discussion with the psychiatrist, followed by an immersion in virtual reality where the patient interacts with the avatar. These interactions aim to strengthen self-esteem, self-assertion, and emotional regulation. A debriefing concludes each session. By creating an avatar of the auditory hallucinations, this therapy helps patients better manage them and improve their condition.
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70%
of the patients treated reported an improvement in their quality of life
90%
of the patients being treated reported a decrease in their hallucinations
Témoignage
Un traitement novateur pour la schizophrénie résistante
« The voices I heard were paralyzing me, and I had to constantly fight them off, which drained all my energy. I wasn’t functioning. Thanks to therapy, I’ve cut my medication in half and I’m starting to feel emotions for the first time in 16 years. […] Thanks to you, I’m regaining my humanity. I’ve started working, I feel useful, and I’m contributing to society. You’ve changed my life.»
— Richard Breton, patient-partner
L'équipe du projet
Alexandre Dumais
Co-principal researcherAlexandre Dumais, MD, PhD, FRCPC, is a research psychiatrist at the CR-IUSMM. He earned a PhD in Biomedical Sciences during his psychiatry residency and went on to complete two postdoctoral fellowships focusing on MRI and the use of virtual reality in research. Since 2015, he has held the status of Junior Clinical Researcher 1 with the FRQS. His expertise in violence risk assessment and the neurobiology of violence has earned him international renown. In total, his research has resulted in over 50 articles published in high-impact scientific journals such as the American Journal of Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Research. Dr. Dumais is an expert in the development and testing of innovative psychosocial interventions using virtual reality for the treatment of mental disorders. He is the principal investigator on the Avatar Project. He oversees the virtual reality procedures and is responsible for training the therapists who will deliver Avatar therapy, as well as for ensuring the integrity of the treatment.
Stéphane Potvin
Co-principal researcherStéphane Potvin, Ph.D., holds the Eli Lilly Chair in Schizophrenia Research and has authored more than 160 articles in leading scientific journals, including the *American Journal of Psychiatry* and *Biological Psychiatry*. He is the coordinator of the Neurobiology and Cognition Division at the research center of the Montreal University Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Potvin studies the harmful effects of cannabis and alcohol on brain structures in patients with schizophrenia, with a particular focus on the brain’s reward system. He investigates emotion processing in this population using functional magnetic resonance imaging. He is a co-principal investigator on the Avatar project. Dr. Potvin utilizes the Chair’s facilities and resources to facilitate student recruitment and training, scientific publications, and the dissemination of knowledge.