Adapting AVATAR Therapy: Using Available Digital Technology for People Living with Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

After that, the therapists could assist the patients in creating the appropriate Bitmoji (Snapchat, Santa Monica, CA, USA) image to match it closely with the perceived AVH, to ensure smooth facilitation of the sessions. Schizophrenia reduces the quality of life and academic and vocational performances of affected individuals.[1] It affects about 20 million people worldwide.[2] One of its hallmark symptoms is auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), wherein the patients hear voices that are particularly threatening, commanding, and abusive in nature, thus adding to the already existing derogatory effects.[3] Although Clozapine is one of the benchmark treatments amongst antipsychotic medications, unfortunately, 20% to 50% of patients do not respond to it and suffer from treatment-resistant schizophrenia for years.[4] Another first-line and evidence-based treatment exercised for AVH is cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis (CBTp).[5] Various randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses have shown that CBTp has moderate effects in ameliorating the symptoms and enhancing the quality of life.[5]-[8] Because the available pharmacological and psychological interventions depict modest effects on AVH outcomes, further clinical research is required in this domain. One-year randomized trial comparing virtual reality-assisted therapy to cognitive-behavioral therapy for patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. [Extracted from the article]