Virtual reality in psychological interventions for mood disorders: a scoping review

Mood disorders impose substantial physical and psychological burdens globally. Virtual reality (VR)- based psychological interventions have gained attention as a potential approach in this field. However, current research on these interventions for mood disorders remains heterogeneous and lacks a comprehensive synthesis. A scoping review is needed to map the existing evidence, and to identify trends and gaps in this emerging area.

This scoping review was to synthesize the existing status of applications about virtual reality-based psychological interventions for mood disorders by examining the characteristics and reported outcomes of included studies.

This scoping review was conducted following Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework. We performed systematic searches across seven electronic databases and gray literature sources. The search encompassed all available records from database inception to March 2026, focusing on studies that were about VR-based psychological interventions for mood disorders.

18 studies were included, finding four types of VR-based psychological interventions, namely cognitive-oriented, experiential-oriented, social situation simulation, and psychoeducational tools. Based on user interaction modes, these interventions were classified into immersive interactive and non-interactive categories. Interventions generally included 1-24 sessions (4-90 min per session, 1-2 sessions weekly), with the most common being 4-12 sessions of 30-50 min each. All studies assessed efficacy, with depressive symptoms and emotion regulation as the most frequent outcomes. 55.6% included feasibility evaluation. User experience feedback highlighted five themes, including interaction design, environmental fidelity, hardware suitability, user experience, and reality transferability.

This review identified four intervention types by content and therapeutic orientation and two categories by user interaction modes. VR-based psychological interventions for mood disorders remain at an early stage. Future research should develop standardized intervention frameworks and conduct more high-quality trials across diverse populations to confirm their effectiveness.

Not applicable.