Virtual reality therapy for refractory auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A pilot clinical trial
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental illness that poses significant challenges. While many pharmacological and psychosocial interventions are available, many treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients continue to suffer from persistent psychotic symptoms, notably auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), which are highly disabling. This unmet clinical need requires new innovative treatment options. Recently, a psychological therapy using computerized technology has shown large therapeutic effects on AVH severity by enabling patients to engage in a dialogue with a computerized representation of their voices. These very promising results have been extended by our team using immersive virtual reality (VR). Our study was a 7-week phase-II, randomized, partial cross-over trial. Nineteen schizophrenia patients with refractory AVH were recruited and randomly allocated to either VR-assisted therapy (VRT) or treatment-as-usual (TAU). The group allocated to TAU consisted of antipsychotic treatment and usual meetings with clinicians. The TAU group then received a delayed 7weeks of VRT. A follow-up was ensured 3months after the last VRT therapy session. Changes in psychiatric symptoms, before and after TAU or VRT, were assessed using a linear mixed-effects model. Our findings showed that VRT produced significant improvements in AVH severity, depressive symptoms and quality of life that lasted at the 3-month follow-up period. Consistent with previous research, our results suggest that…
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du Sert et al. (2018) showed reduction of AVH symptoms and related distress.
“Reduction of AVH symptoms and related distress.”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as du Sert et al. (2018)
du Sert et al. (2018) showed reduction of general and depressive symptoms.
“Reduction of general and depressive symptoms.”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as du Sert et al. (2018)
du Sert et al. (2018) showed improvement in quality of life.
“Improvement in quality of life”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as du Sert et al. (2018)
In du Sert et al. (2018), psychiatric symptoms diminished and quality of life improved.
“while psychiatric symptoms diminished and quality of life also improved.”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as du Sert et al. (2018)
In patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder with auditory verbal hallucinations, VRET produced significant improvements in the severity of AVH and beliefs about voices.
“The results reported significant improvements in the severity of AVH, as well as in the beliefs about voices”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as du Sert et al. (2018)
Our research identified various trials in which either VR assisted therapies or psychedelics have been studied to decrease symptomatology and increase quality of life of people affected by psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.
“Our research identified various trials in which either VR assisted therapies or the use of psychedelics have been studied in order to decrease the symptomatology and increase the quality of life of people affected by psychiatric disorders, including those that pose a therapeutic challenge for clinicians, such as schizophrenia (du Sert et al., 2018).”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as du Sert et al., 2018
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- Authors
- Percie du Sert, O., Potvin, S., Lipp, O., Dellazizzo, L., Laurelli, M., Breton, R., Lalonde, P., Phraxayavong, K., O'Connor, K., Pelletier, J.-F., Boukhalfi, T., Renaud, P., & Dumais, A.
- Affiliations
- Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (CA)
- Institut national de psychiatrie légale Philippe-Pinel (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Dumais, Alexandre
- ORCID
- Venue
- Schizophrenia Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-07
- Volume
- 197
- Pages
- 176-181
- ISSN
- 0920-9964 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2789385117
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 13.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Schizophrenia Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Institut Philippe-Pinel Foundation
- Fondation Jean-Louis Lévesque
- Eli Lilly Canada Chair on Schizophrenia Research
- Applications de la Réalité Virtuelle en Psychiatrie Légale
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hallucinations in medical conditions
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Keywords
- virtual reality therapy, auditory verbal hallucinations
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Hallucinations, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pilot Projects, Schizophrenia, Speech Perception, Therapy, Computer-Assisted, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Cross-Over Studies, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
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