The Use of Virtual Reality Technology in the Treatment of Anxiety and Other Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Virtual reality, or VR, allows users to experience a sense of presence in a computer-generated three-dimensional environment. Sensory information is delivered through a head mounted display and specialized interface devices. These devices track head movements so that the movements and images change in a natural way with head motion, allowing for a sense of immersion. VR allows for controlled delivery of sensory stimulation via the therapist and is a convenient and cost-effective treatment. The primary focus of this article is to review the available literature regarding the effectiveness of incorporating VR within the psychiatric treatment of a wide range of psychiatric disorders, with a specific focus on exposure-based intervention for anxiety disorders. A systematic literature search was conducted in order to identify studies implementing VR based treatment for anxiety or other psychiatric disorders. This review will provide an overview of the history of the development of VR based technology and its use within psychiatric treatment, an overview of the empirical evidence for VR based treatment, the benefits for using VR for psychiatric research and treatment, recommendations for how to incorporate VR into psychiatric care, and future directions for VR based treatment and clinical research.

A randomised controlled trial to assess the feasibility of utilising virtual reality to facilitate analgesia during external cephalic version

“…Age (years) 31 In the intervention group, 20 women (80%) indicated that they would use the VR again in a subsequent ECV procedure and 19 (76%) believed it should be offered as a routine part of the ECV. Twenty-two women (88%) said that they would recommend it to a friend undergoing ECV.…”

Combining frontal gamma asymmetry neurofeedback with virtual reality: A proof of concept case study

“…In addition to specific phobias, a recent review of VR research shows that this modality is a promising intervention used in the treatment of a variety of mental health concerns, including social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessivecompulsive disorder, schizophrenia, acute and chronic pain, addictions, eating pathology, and autism (Maples-Keller, Bunnell, Kim, & Rothbaum, 2017). As these applications gain traction, an increasing number of companies are beginning to create VR systems that interface with various bioand neuromodulation techniques.…”

Recommendations for Methodology of Virtual Reality Clinical Trials in Health Care by an International Working Group: Iterative Study (Preprint)

“…VR has been used to assess and treat a wide variety of medical, surgical, psychiatric, and neurocognitive conditions including pain [1,2,4,9,13,18], addiction [20][21][22][23][24][25], anxiety disorders [3,6,7,15,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], schizophrenia [10,11,[36][37][38][39][40], eating disorders [1,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48], stroke rehabilitation [5,16,[48][49][50][51], vestibular disorders [52], and movement disorders [53]<...>…”