Virtual reality and persecutory delusions: safety and feasibility

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) is emerging as a tool to study paranoia, a key symptom of psychosis.
• Previous research involved non-clinical and high-risk individuals; the next step is to adapt VR for clinical delusions.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the safety and acceptability of VR for individuals with current persecutory delusions.
• Determine if patients experience immersion and paranoid thoughts in a VR social environment.

Main Methods:

• Twenty individuals with persecutory delusions and twenty non-clinical controls participated.
• Participants experienced a 4-minute VR underground train scenario with neutral characters.
• Measures included simulator sickness, distress, sense of presence, and persecutory ideation, with a one-week follow-up.

Main Results:

• The VR experience did not increase anxiety or simulator sickness.
• No adverse side effects were reported during the follow-up period.
• Participants reported a significant sense of presence; 65% of the delusion group experienced persecutory thoughts about virtual characters.

Conclusions:

• Brief VR experiences are safe and acceptable for individuals with psychosis.
• VR can engage patients with paranoia, inducing persecutory thoughts in virtual social settings.
• VR exposure to social situations shows potential for cognitive behavioral interventions for paranoia.