OxfordVR gameChange

gameChange is an automated virtual reality therapy developed by the University of Oxford, OxfordVR and NHS trusts. Wearing a VR headset, you practise everyday situations such as a café, a shop or a bus while a virtual coach guides you through cognitive therapy techniques, with a mental health worker present. In a 2022 trial in England of 346 people with psychosis, adding gameChange to usual care reduced agoraphobic avoidance and distress at 6 weeks compared with usual care alone; the overall effect was small, and the largest benefit was in people with the most severe avoidance. In 2023 NICE's early value assessment said it can be used in the NHS for people 16 and over with psychosis and severe agoraphobic avoidance while more evidence is gathered, and a real-world trial is running from 2025 to 2027. It is offered only through some NHS services; it is not sold to individuals, and in the US it has an FDA Breakthrough Device designation (2022) but no clearance. OxfordVR merged with US company BehaVR in 2022, and a 2025 study says XR Health now holds the commercial licence.