Effectiveness of Augmented and Virtual Reality-Based Interventions in Improving Knowledge, Attitudes, Empathy and Stigma Regarding People with Mental Illnesses—A Scoping Review
Open accessAbstract
Interventions adopting augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) modalities allow participants to explore and experience realistic scenarios, making them useful psycho-educational tools for mental illnesses. This scoping review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of AR/VR interventions in improving (1) knowledge, (2) attitudes, (3) empathy and (4) stigma regarding people with mental illnesses. Literature on published studies in English up till April 2022 was searched within several databases. Sixteen articles were included. The majority of studies were conducted in the West (93.8%), within undergraduates (68.8%) but also amongst high school students, patients, caregivers, public including online community, and covered conditions including psychotic illnesses, dementia, anxiety and depression. A preponderance of these included studies which employed AR/VR based interventions observed improvements in knowledge (66.7%), attitudes (62.5%), empathy (100%) and reduction of stigma (71.4%) pertaining to people with mental illnesses. In the context of relatively limited studies, extant AR/VR based interventions could potentially improve knowledge, attitudes, empathy and decrease stigma regarding people with mental illness. Further research needs to be conducted in larger and more diverse samples to investigate the relatively beneficial effects of different AR/VR modalities and the durability of observed improvements of relevant outcomes of interests over time for different mental conditions.
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Tay et al found that immersive and augmented reality environments enhance empathy and reduce stigma by enabling learners to experience affective and perceptual dimensions of mental illness.
“Complementing this, Tay et al [47] found that immersive and augmented reality environments enhance empathy and reduce stigma by enabling learners to experience affective and perceptual dimensions of mental illness.”
From Enhancing Psychiatry Training Using an Agentic AI Simulated Consultation Tool: Prospective Cohort Study (2026) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- Tay, J. L., Xie, H., & Sim, K.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Mental Health (SG)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Corresponding author
- Tay, Jing Ling
- Venue
- Journal of Personalized Medicine
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-01-04
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 112
- ISSN
- 2075-4426 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9864845
- OpenAlex
- W4313576931
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 23
- FWCI
- 1.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Personalized Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- West Region Department Fund, Institute of Mental Health
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Augmented Reality Applications
- Keywords
- augmented reality, virtual reality, mental health stigma, empathy, attitudes toward mental illness, mental illness knowledge, psychoeducational intervention, psychosis, dementia, anxiety, depression, mental health education
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