Virtual reality for clinical evaluation and treatment in schizophrenia: a systematic review

ObjectiveThe objective of the present systematic review is to answer the following question: is there enough scientific evidence to conclude that virtual reality is an effective tool to evaluate and treat the symptoms of people diagnosed with with schizophrenia?BackgroundEight systematic literature reviews and one meta-analysis focused on this question have recently been published. However, while they tend toward the conclusion that VR is of value in the evaluation and treatment of people diagnosed with schizophrenic disorders, they have important limitations.MethodWe used the PRISMA method. Using the keywords “virtual reality”, “video game”, “schizophrenia”, “therapy” to search in four databases. 31 articles met our selection criteria (with independent double screening). We analyzed the objectives, methods, tools and results of each article.ResultsTwenty of the selected articles provide scientific evidence of the effectiveness of VR for evaluating different domains in schizophrenia. The other eleven articles focus on evidence of therapeutic effectiveness of interventions with VR tools. However, because of the diversity of the dimensions evaluated or treated, and of the VR tools used, replication studies are lacking.DiscussionThere is some scientific evidence that VR tools can be effective in the evaluation and treatment of dimensions of schizophrenia, in particular cognitive dimensions. However, additional studies are needed to confirm these results, replicating measures of the same dimensions using the same VR tools.