Country for PR: Japan
Contributor: Kyodo News JBN
Thursday, April 02 2020 - 19:00
AsiaNet
Jolly Good and National Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Research Enter Clinical Trial Collaboration for VR Therapeutics
TOKYO, Apr. 2, 2020 /Kyodo JBN-AsiaNet/ --

-Partnership Aims to Develop World's First Cognitive Behavioral Therapy VR for 
Patients with Depression-

Jolly Good Inc. (hereinafter "Jolly Good") and the National Center for 
Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Research (hereinafter "NCCBTR") announced that 
they have entered into a clinical trial collaboration agreement directed toward 
the development of digital health solutions. Under the agreement, Jolly Good 
will develop and commercialize CBT VR in Japan and certain other overseas 
markets for patients with depression. Before the collaboration accord, Jolly 
Good applied for its "VR Diagnostic treatment system" patent in Japan on 
February 26, 2020 (patent application numbers: 2020-030723).

In the trial, the two partners will provide CBT focusing on positive-valence 
system using VR toward patients with moderate to higher depression. In 
addition, they will test the safeness and effectiveness of the VR therapeutics. 
The hypothesis is that by exposing patients under virtual reality related to 
positive-valence, it will decrease the suppression of activity making the 
patient available to find positive-valence in real-life situations as well. 
This will improve the symptoms of depressions, especially anhedonia. This 
research will prevent severe depression and decrease the number of hospitalized 
patients. In other words, the partners want to promote the use of VR and AI 
technology for effective treatment of depression that does not rely on drugs.

About Depression
Depressive disorders led to a global total of over 50 million Years Lived with 
Disability (YLD) in 2015. Globally, depressive disorders are ranked as the 
single largest contributor to non-fatal health loss (WHO, 2017).
Mental disorder is considered as one of the five major diseases in Japan. Among 
them, especially depression has a large percentage (1.27 million patients), and 
the annual economic cost of depression totals up to 3.09 trillion yen.

About Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
The purpose of CBT is to relieve symptoms and prevent recurrence of depression 
in mood, physical responses, etc., caused by stress through strengthening 
patient self-control by applying theories and behavior modification techniques 
of cognitive behavioral science.

About Jolly Good
Jolly Good is a Japanese technology startup company that develops VR solutions 
and AI engines that analyze user behavior in VR space. The company designs 
advanced technologies and provides user-friendly solutions to many companies 
and local governments utilizing VR and AI in their businesses.
For more information visit: https://jollygood.co.jp/

About National Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Research
The Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Research is Japan's first 
training and research center specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy 
(CBT). The center conducts its activities at The National Center of Neurology 
and Psychiatry's headquarters and a satellite office in Tokyo. The center 
implements the nation's leading-edge research and training related to cognitive 
behavioral therapy.

For more information, visit: https://www.ncnp.go.jp/cbt/english/


SOURCE: Jolly Good Inc.