The use of virtual reality in psychiatry: A review
Open accessAbstract
With the advancement in modern information technology, virtual reality (VR) is being increasingly used for the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of mental disorders. Recently, a VR-based cognitive behavioral therapy for social phobia has been recognized as a new medical technology in South Korea. This might lead to an increase in the use of VR in the field of psychiatry. The present review provides an overview of the status of VR therapies in various psychiatric conditions such as anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, addiction, and eating disorder. Besides, it summarizes the role of VR therapy in the management of disorders associated with child and adolescence psychiatry as well as various other clinical applications. Additionally, we discuss the merits and limitations of VR therapy, which might serve as a useful reference for researchers. In the current environment wherein novel medical models consisting of a combination of digital devices and medicine are being developed; understanding new technologies such as VR could open new doors to mental health treatments.
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Numerous studies have integrated VR with various psychotherapies, and their effectiveness and safety have been preliminarily validated.
“Numerous studies have integrated VR with various psychotherapies, and their effectiveness and safety have been preliminarily validated (16–18).”
From A virtual reality-based self-guided training on identification of negative automatic thoughts in healthy adults: a mixed-methods feasibility study (2024) · cites this paper as [17]
The 'Additional clinical applications of VR' section describes VR being used alongside traditional psychotherapy and counselling, and the review reports effectiveness in some areas. The Discussion says safety still needs verification and that evidence of effectiveness is limited to some conditions, so it does not support the claim that both effectiveness and safety have been preliminarily validated across the various therapies. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 59 · Cited by 99
- Authors
- Kim, S., & Kim, E.
- Affiliations
- Yonsei University (KR)
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Published
- 2020-01-01
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 26-32
- ISSN
- 1225-729X (ISSN-L)
- 2233-9183
- PMC
- PMC7324842
- OpenAlex
- W3000309645
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 1.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- YUHSpace (Yonsei University Medical Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Ministry of Science, and ICT (NRF2017M3C1B6071066)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- virtual reality therapy, virtual reality exposure therapy, social anxiety disorder, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, addiction, eating disorders, child and adolescent psychiatry, digital mental health interventions
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