Virtual reality for psychosocial remediation in schizophrenia: a systematic review

Background and objective: Psychosocial impairment in schizophrenia is related to deficits in functioning and quality of life. Virtual reality (VR) is an interesting tool that has been started to use in remediation therapies. The aim of this study is to carry out a systematic review to describe the state-of-the-art in VR for psychosocial interventions in schizophrenia. Methods: Publications from 1st January 2000 to 1st July 2019 on VR-based interventions for psychosocial remediation in schizophrenia were reviewed in five databases: PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library. Results: From the initial resulting set of 144 publications, a final number of 7 publications were included. All of them showed positive results in the main target explored. Four studies focused on social skills, two studies were aimed at improving job interview skills and one focused on social cognition. Samples were variable (from a case report to 64 participants). Three studies compared the intervention with a control condition and two studies specified the use of immersive virtual reality. Conclusions: VR offers an interesting and promising therapeutic option for patients suffering from schizophrenia, although more studies are needed to clarify if interventions based on VR are more effective than classical interventions. (C) 2020 Asociacion Universitaria de Zaragoza para el Progreso de la Psiquiatria y la Salud Mental. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.