A Decade in Review: A Systematic Review of Virtual Reality Interventions for Emotional Disorders
Open accessAbstract
Research is increasingly demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of virtual reality interventions for various mental health conditions, though these rarely translate from research to application in clinical settings. This systematic review aims to examine the efficacy of current virtual reality interventions for emotional disorders, with a focus on clinical and technological features that influence translation of treatments from research to clinical practice. A comprehensive systematic literature search was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, for studies including the application of a virtual reality intervention to a clinical population of adults with an emotional disorder. Thirty-seven eligible studies were identified, appraised, and assessed for bias. Treatment effects were typically large across studies, with virtual reality being considered an efficacious treatment modality for various anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Virtual reality interventions were typically used for delivering exposure in cognitive behavioural therapy approaches. Considerable variability was seen in cost, technological specifications, degree of therapist involvement, delivery format, dosage, duration, and frequency of treatment. Suboptimal methodological rigour was identified in some studies. Remote use of virtual reality was rare, despite increasing options for in home use. Virtual reality interventions have the potential to overcome barriers to care and better meet the needs of consumers. Future research should examine the efficacy of virtual reality for treatment of depressive disorders and obsesive compulsive disorder. Improved methodological reporting and development of transdiagnostic and remotely delivered virtual reality interventions, will likely increase the translation of this treatment modality.
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Several VR interventions have recently been aimed at addressing mental health conditions and increasing the accessibility of mental health services.
“Several virtual reality (VR) interventions have recently been aimed at addressing mental health conditions and increasing the accessibility of mental health services to society [8,9,10,11,12,13].”
From Virtual Reality for Addressing Depression and Anxiety: A Bibliometric Analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [11]
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Jingili, N., Oyelere, S. S., Nyström, M. B. T., & Anyshchenko, L. (2023) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2023.1239435 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
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“Additionally, assigning homework between sessions could facilitate psychological management during treatment (Cronin et al ., 2015; Mausbach et al ., 2010; Rowland et al ., 2022).”
Self-Guided Virtual Reality Therapy for Anxiety: A Systematic Review
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“As has been seen in reviews of interventions in other disease groups [57], the included studies used widely different VR protocols.”
Examining the potential of VR program Tilt Brush in reducing anxiety
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Impact of virtual reality and video backgrounds on mental health in digital meditation
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Slatman, S., Harvie, D. S., van der Heijden, M., Bulle-Smid, L., Dejaco, B., van Goor, H., Groenveld, T. D., van de Hoef, P. A., Kragting, M., Ostelo, R., et al. (2025) · Journal of Medical Extended Reality · doi:10.1177/29941520251404744 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“This was mentioned as a limitation of recent VR research in different health care settings, including psychology, 14 chronic pain, 15 and physical rehabilitation research.”
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“…focused on psychologi - cal interventions, such as cognitive and behavioral therapy and exposure therapy (Bordnick et al. 2011; Hone-Blanchet et al. 2014; Segawa et al. 2020; Rowland et al. 2022), there have been also studies interested in the use of VR for cognitive training in these populations.”
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Analyzing Exergame Recordings with Embedded Bio-Data in Immersive Virtual Reality
Bimberg, P., Minuth, M., Zielasko, D., & Weyers, B. (2024) · 2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) · doi:10.1109/vrw62533.2024.00029 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Giving therapists an accessible way of evaluating their clients’ performance by reviewing critical moments in their previous training sessions could help to increase their targeted involvement in VR interventions, which is currently missing in practice [8,34].”
BackgroundThe Role of VR Serious Games in Emotion Regulation: An Empirical Evaluation
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“…records present diversity in study designs, which is consistent with previous observations that a substantial proportion of research involving VR and AI in other therapeutic approaches consists of pilot studies, experimental protocols, and clinical trials with relatively small samples [17,18].”
Man, S.-S., Wang, J.-Y., Liang, Z.-Y., Wang, Y., & Chan, A. H. S. (2026) · Ergonomics · doi:10.1080/00140139.2026.2736802
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“…physical, nutritional, and environmental factors can be used to create holistic well-being programs for students, and that the integrative approaches reported here may improve mental well-being promotion, prevention, and intervention models for academic settings and other settings [20, 21].”
Wray, T., Magill, M., Traylor, A. C., & Monti, P. M. (2026) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-10517029/v1
“VR has been used to enhance psychotherapy for a range of conditions (Bell et al., 2024; Emmelkamp & Meyerbröker, 2021; Rowland et al., 2022), but is especially well-supported for treating anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (Carl et al., 2019a).”
Moura, R., Luís, S., Camilo, C., & Portugal, E. (2026) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103127
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Kacperczyk, J., Bezak, J., Winkler, M., Arczewska, A., Zaborowski, M., Purgał-Zaborowska, K., Michałowska, K., Kolanowski, O., & Turzańska, O. (2026) · International Journal of Innovative Technologies in Social Science · doi:10.31435/ijitss.2(50).2026.5437
StopMiedo: a technology-assisted intervention system for the treatment of amaxophobia
González-Velázquez, S., Molina, A. I., González, I., Lacave, C., Mondéjar, T., & Nugent, C. D. (2026) · Universal Access in the Information Society · doi:10.1007/s10209-026-01312-z
“Controlled exposure to anxiety-inducing stimuli within a virtual environment provides a safe, comfortable, and accessible medium for delivering exposure-based behavioral treatments [34 ].”
Immersive Virtual Reality Tai Chi: Health Outcomes in Older Adults
Lobos, M. A., Kim, J., Autry, C., Fish, M., & Kim, J. (2026) · Activities, Adaptation & Aging · doi:10.1080/01924788.2026.2657220
“A systematic review by Rowland et al. (2022), which analyzed 37 studies, revealed significant variability in the duration and frequency of VR interventions for mental health.”
Munir, A.-K., & Saleem, Y. (2026) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-025-01269-z
“…based solely on self-reported measures, as there is a high probability that the shared information may be biased, either intentionally or mental health disorders lack mature methodology in clinical VR research (Selaskowski 2024 ; Wiebe 2022; Rowland et al. 2022; Wood et al. 2021; Freeman, 2017).”
Chen, Z., & Takatori, C. (2026) · Computers in Human Behavior Reports · doi:10.1016/j.chbr.2026.100965
The Role of Temporality in Virtual Reality Interventions for Depressive Episodes—A Scoping Review
Saroka, V., Jędrejek, T., Trybulec, M., & Rucińska, Z. (2026) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare14020156
“The majority of research on the role of VR for depression is individually designed, which suggests that this field remains relatively underdeveloped [16,36].”
Extended reality and healthcare practitioner well-being: scoping review
Mould, H., Abbas, J., Loizou, M., Culley, N., Asthana, S., Shankar, R., & Downey, J. (2025) · BJPsych Open · doi:10.1192/bjo.2025.10858
“However, as suggested in previous systematic reviews, 57,58 future research should explore ideal duration and frequency of interventions, with long-term effect on well-being also assessed.”
Thang, T., Mishra, A., Zhang, S., Peters, G., Henry, C., & Kurniawan, S. (2023) · International Conference on Digital Health · doi:10.1109/icdh60066.2023.00032
“In recent years, research evaluating the use of virtual reality (VR) technologies as a method of providing support to individuals with psychosocial disorders suggests that it is beneficial in reducing symptoms of social anxiety and improves social skills for children and adolescents [14], [15].”
BackgroundResult
- Authors
- Rowland, D. P., Casey, L. M., Ganapathy, A., Cassimatis, M., & Clough, B. A.
- Affiliations
- Griffith University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Rowland, Dale P.
- Venue
- Psychosocial Intervention
- Published
- 2021-12
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-20
- ISSN
- 1132-0559 (ISSN-L)
- 2173-4712
- PMC
- PMC10268557
- OpenAlex
- W3202675838
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 0.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Psychosocial Intervention (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) (submittedVersion)
- Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- virtual reality intervention, emotional disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, treatment efficacy, remote delivery, home-based therapy, transdiagnostic treatment, depressive disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, methodological quality
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