Taking modern psychiatry into the metaverse: Integrating augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies into psychiatric care

Abstract

The landscape of psychiatry is ever evolving and has recently begun to be influenced more heavily by new technologies. One novel technology which may have particular application to psychiatry is the metaverse, a three-dimensional digital social platform accessed via augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR). The metaverse allows the interaction of users in a virtual world which can be measured and manipulated, posing at once exciting new possibilities and significant potential challenges and risks. While the final form of the nascent metaverse is not yet clear, the immersive simulation and holographic mixed reality-based worlds made possible by the metaverse have the potential to redefine neuropsychiatric care for both patients and their providers. While a number of applications for this technology can be envisioned, this article will focus on leveraging the metaverse in three specific domains: medical education, brain stimulation, and biofeedback. Within medical education, the metaverse could allow for more precise feedback to students performing patient interviews as well as the ability to more easily disseminate highly specialized technical skills, such as those used in advanced neurostimulation paradigms. Examples of potential applications in brain stimulation and biofeedback range from using AR to improve precision targeting of non-invasive neuromodulation modalities to more innovative practices, such as using physiological and behavioral measures derived from interactions in VR environments to directly inform and personalize treatment parameters for patients. Along with promising future applications, we also discuss ethical implications and data security concerns that arise when considering the introduction of the metaverse and related AR/VR technologies to psychiatric research and care.

Metaverse-powered basic sciences medical education: bridging the gaps for lower middle-income countries

“…This innovation facilitates teaching and practicing challenging clinical scenarios, providing meticulous feedback to medical students engaged in patient interviews, and disseminating highly specialized technical skills [ 23 ]. Ultimately, this bridges the gap between theoretical understanding and practical expertise, creating more competent medical professionals [ 24 ]. Additionally, it reduces pain perception and underscores the importance of using metaverse both as a learning tool and clinical aid [ 25 ].…”

Metaverse in Mental Health: The Beginning of a Long History

“…Exactly as it has already been demonstrated for VR [ 16 ], immersive technologies can aid clinicians in improving clinical assessment or exerting control over and modifying elements of the virtual environments that can be utilized to evaluate and test pertinent factors, including inducing social anxiety or monitoring reactions to environmental signals. However, concerning the large amount of evidence provided for the application of VR-related tools in mental health, the entry of the metaverse should be considered mainly for its social contents [ 9 , 17 ]. As previously said, the metaverse represents a novel “federation” of several technologies featuring a robust service-oriented framework, prioritizing social content to establish connections between tangible and virtual realms [ 1 ].…”

Exploring the Potential of Mixed Reality in Enhancing Student Learning Experience and Academic Performance: An Empirical Study

“…The combination of mixed reality and the metaverse in education brings subjects to life, enabling students to immerse themselves in realistic simulations, historical reenactments, or interactive storytelling experiences [51]. It fosters active engagement and empowers learners to explore concepts at their own pace, boosting motivation and knowledge retention [52].…”

“…The novel student experiences are behaviors in which students create new knowledge by using their experience to provide immediate gratification [43]. Students' ability to clear doubt, turn their imagination into reality and perceive experiments and observation working in a way he/she is being taught will help them to build their knowledge and expertise in the subject [16,17,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. Such knowledge and expertise, which is possible due to novel learning experiences using mixed reality, creates a sense of satisfaction in students' minds.…”