Effects of a Virtual Reality-Based Meditation Intervention on Anxiety and Depression Among Patients With Acute...

Emerging evidence supports that virtual reality (VR)-based meditation interventions may improve anxiety and depression among patients with cancer. However, empirical studies involving patients with acute leukemia during induction chemotherapy are limited.

This study aimed to examine the effects of VR-based meditation intervention on alleviating anxiety and depression and improving the quality of life among patients with acute leukemia during induction chemotherapy.

This randomized controlled trial recruited 63 patients newly diagnosed with acute leukemia. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (received VR-based meditation for 20 min daily for 14 days) and a control group. Anxiety, depression, and quality of life were measured using the State Anxiety Inventory, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Leukemia Questionnaire, respectively. All outcomes were measured at baseline and post-intervention.

Compared with patients in the control group, those in the intervention group demonstrated a significantly greater reduction in anxiety (P = .04) and improvement in quality of life (P = .04). However, no significant difference was noted in depression levels between groups (P = .09), although a decreasing trend was observed in the intervention group.

Virtual reality-based meditation intervention effectively alleviated anxiety and improved the quality of life among acute leukemia patients during induction chemotherapy. Future randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods are warranted.

Virtual reality-based meditation can be applied in clinical practice virtually anytime and anywhere to provide a convenient intervention for anxiety reduction for acute leukemia patients during induction chemotherapy.