[Virtual Reality in psychiatry and psychotherapy]

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Virtual Reality Technology

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) has seen increasing application in psychiatry and psychotherapy over the past two decades.
• While research has primarily focused on anxiety disorders, VR therapy shows potential for eating disorders, addictions, autism, and ADHD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current applications and effectiveness of VR interventions in psychiatric and psychotherapeutic contexts.
• To highlight the specific use of VR for schizophrenia symptoms, including cognitive and social deficits, auditory hallucinations, and delusions.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of VR-based therapeutic interventions in psychiatry.
• Analysis of VR applications for a range of mental health conditions, with a focus on schizophrenia.

Main Results:

• VR therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in treating anxiety disorders and shows encouraging results for other conditions.
• VR interventions are being developed to address cognitive and social impairments in schizophrenia, targeting positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions.

Conclusions:

• Current findings support the effectiveness of VR-based therapeutic interventions, warranting further investigation.
• Widespread adoption of VR interventions necessitates well-designed, blinded, randomized, long-term follow-up studies.