UCLB News

AVATAR Therapy trial launches in Scotland

29 April 2021

Avatar graphic

A ground-breaking clinical trial, which allows patients to create digital avatars to represent the visual and auditory hallucinations experienced by people with psychosis, has launched in Scotland.

The trial, developed by academics at UCL and King’s College London, will mark its first quarter of clinical investigation in Scotland.

It builds on two previous clinical trials at UCL and King’s College London and hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, which showed the therapy resulted in a rapid and substantial fall in frequency and associated distress of voices at 12 weeks, when compared with supportive counselling alone.

Invented by academics at UCL and supported with patent filings by UCL Business, AVATAR Therapy uses digital avatars to represent the visual & auditory hallucinations experienced by people with psychosis to help them cope with the distress caused by their psychosis.

Throughout its development, the AVATAR Therapy project has primarily been funded by the Wellcome Trust with further support from the National Institute of Health Research and Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

Derek Reay, Senior Business Manager at UCL Business says: “We’re delighted to see the launch of the AVATAR2 trial in Scotland. Following positive results seen from the previous clinical trials, this marks another step in the journey towards validating Avatar Therapy as a treatment of choice for patients with psychosis.”

For further information:

Read more about Avatar Therapy in Evening Standard.

AVATAR project receives £3.37 m to systemically evaluate its therapy to help those with auditory hallucinations.