Virtual reality in the assessment, understanding, and treatment of mental health disorders

By Daniel Freeman, S. Reeve, A. Robinson, A. Ehlers, D. Clark, Bernhard Spanlang, Mel Slater. Psychological Medicine, 2017

1,064 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Mental health problems are inseparable from the environment. With virtual reality (VR), computer-generated interactive environments, individuals can repeatedly experience their problematic situations and be taught, via evidence-based psychological treatments, how to overcome difficulties. VR is moving out of specialist laboratories. Our central aim was to describe the potential of VR in mental health, including a consideration of the first 20 years of applications. A systematic review of empirical studies was conducted. In all, 285 studies were identified, with 86 concerning assessment, 45 theory development, and 154 treatment. The main disorders researched were anxiety (n = 192), schizophrenia (n = 44), substance-related disorders (n = 22) and eating disorders (n = 18). There are pioneering early studies, but the methodological quality of studies was generally low. The gaps in meaningful applications to mental health are extensive. The most established finding is that VR exposure-based treatments can reduce anxiety disorders, but there are numerous research and treatment avenues of promise. VR was found to be a much-misused term, often applied to non-interactive and non-immersive technologies. We conclude that VR has the potential to transform the assessment, understanding and treatment of mental health problems. The treatment possibilities will only be realized if – with the user experience at the heart of design – the best immersive VR technology is combined with targeted translational interventions. The capability of VR to simulate reality could greatly increase access to psychological therapies, while treatment outcomes could be enhanced by the technology's ability to create new realities. VR may merit the level of attention given to neuroimaging.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Human-Computer Interaction

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/42692324ae66e59d9b61877055a4d122487793fe

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

In Human-Computer Interaction

Citations in the corpus

Neuroscience of Virtual Reality: From Virtual Exposure to Embodied Medicine (2019, background): “In many articles, attention is focused on the high level of control and customization allowed by this technology.(1,2,9,10,87) VR allows the level of fit between the content of the exposure and the feared stimuli to be optimized.”
The Ethics of Realism in Virtual and Augmented Reality (2020, background): “Thanks to this, VR has become increasingly used for therapeutic purposes including pain management (Matamala-Gomez et al., 2019) and treatment of phobias and anxiety disorders (Freeman et al., 2017).”
How Virtual Reality Technology Has Changed Our Lives: An Overview of the Current and Potential Applications and Limitations (2022, background): “Allowing a therapist to observe the situation can give them a better insight into why their patient is reacting in a certain way, which will allow them to better treat their patient [48].”
The Past, Present, and Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality Research: A Network and Cluster Analysis of the Literature (2018, background): “…(Englund et al., 2017), learning and social skills training (Schmidt et al., 2017), simulations of surgical procedures (Gallagher et al., 2005), assistance to the elderly or psychological treatments are other ﬁelds in which VR is bursting strongly (Freeman et al., 2017; Neri et al., 2017).”
The impact of virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies on the customer experience (2019, neutral): “…Brengman, & Willems, 2017a), tourism (Griffin et al., 2017), education (Merchant, Goetz, Cifuentes, Keeney-Kennicutt, & Davis, 2014), healthcare (Freeman et al., 2017), entertainment (Lin, Wu, & Tao, 2017) and research (Bigné, Llinares, & Torrecilla, 2016; Meißner, Pfeiffer, Pfeiffer, &…”
Virtual and Augmented Reality Applications in Medicine: Analysis of the Scientific Literature (2020, positive): “Meanwhile, the use of immersive VR was beneficial in managing a spectrum of emotional problems, such as the fear of heights [48], anxiety disorders [17], depression [49], and ASD [50].”