Investigating the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Therapy in theMental Health of Individuals with Schizophrenia: A Review Study

Background: Schizophrenia, as the most severe and debilitating mental disorder, causes significantchanges in the levels of perception, thoughts, feelings, behavior, concentration, attention, speech,cognition and overall performance of individuals. The chronic nature of schizophrenia duplicates itsimportance for both individuals and their family. Among the numerous treatment, care and supportiveapproaches, the novel “virtual reality therapy” approach is considerable. Although the effectiveness ofvirtual reality therapy in many chronic mental disorders has been determined, its effectiveness onschizophrenia is controversial. Therefore, the present study was conducted aiming to determine theeffectiveness of virtual reality therapy in the mental health of individuals with schizophrenia.Methods: This article was conducted by reviewing the related resources in Science -Direct,Google-Scholar, Medline, Elsevier and Cochrane-Library databases between ۲۰۱۸ to ۲۰۲۳,based on the keywords. Afterwards, among the primary ۲۳ articles, ۱۱ articles wereselected and reviewed.Findings: According to the reviewed studies, virtual reality therapy was implemented amongschizophrenia individuals in the form of “virtual nature therapy”, “virtual communication therapy”,“virtual scenario therapy of everyday challenges”, “virtual training of social skills”, “virtualcontrolled exposure”, “virtualization of client's hallucinations in order to create insight and awarenessand desensitization” and finally “virtual cognitive behavioral psychotherapy”. The proposedimplementations, regardless of their accessibility and economical feature compared to the traditionalapproaches, has significantly reduced the intensity of “anxiety”, “depression”, “auditory and visualhallucinations”, “delusions” and “sleep disorders”. Reciprocally, it has significantly improved thelevels of “attention”, “concentration”, “insight” and “interpersonal relationships” among thementioned individuals.Conclusion: According to the findings, the virtual reality therapy approach has had significantpositive consequences on the mental health of individuals with schizophrenia. Therefore, according tothe mentioned consequences, along with the increasing growth of virtual reality, it is suggested to takethe necessary measures in order to implement such novel approaches.

Keywords:

Virtual Reality , Mental Health , Schizophrenia , Rehabilitation