Evidence-Based Virtual Reality Use for Mental Health Conditions

Introduction

Global burden of disease (GBD) research provides the prevalence of various diseases, their risk factors and the debilitating effect it has on the population (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2020). The GBD 2019 report provides the descriptive epidemiology from 204 countries and territories through the use of Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from 1990-2019 (Vos, et al., 2020). Though there has been improvement in global health, mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression have remained the top concerns. The ongoing global health (COVID-19) crisis has contributed to an increase in the pooled estimates of various mental health concerns compared to prior results (Nochaiwong, et al., 2021). This has made it essential to deliver safe services to customers through alternative means from different sectors in a way that gives them the experience. In such situations, immersive technology has garnered attention.

Virtual reality (VR) therapy for psychiatric disorders have been evaluated, however, its impact is different across different disorders owing to the evolving nature of VR technology (Cieślik, et al., 2020). The mental health disorders emphasised in relation to VR as given below are: Anxiety-related disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Major depressive disorder.