Outlook of applying of virtual reality (VR) technologies in the treatment of patients with mental disorders (review of foreign literature)

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to summarize data from foreign studies about the use of virtual reality (VR) technology in the treatment of patients with various mental disorders.Materials and methods: we selected and analyzed articles from MEDLINE / PubMed databases during the period from 2000 till 2020, as well as relevant references in the bibliography of the analyzed articles. 45 articles were included in further analysis from 575 English-language articles.Results: The use of VR technologies in the treatment of mental disorders appears to be one of the promising directions in psychiatry. The successfulness of these methods in patients with eating disorders, anxiety-phobic disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder is supported to be evidentiary information. There is evidence of the effectiveness of such methods in patients with schizophrenia, particularly, one of the most significant results is an increase in social functioning. The absence of side effects data makes it possible to consider t VR therapy as a safe method. It is needed to make further study the areas of application of VR therapy and conduct research to identify possible side effects of this method.Conclusion: The obtained results are important for drawing attention to the prospect of using VR technologies in Russian psychiatry and demonstrate the need for further study of this method.

Keywords

• virtual reality
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• phobic disorder
• anxiety disorder
• schizophrenia
• obsessive-compulsive disorder
• eating disorders