Background: People with psychosis can experience significant social functioning impairments. Virtual reality (VR) can extend traditional assessment and treatment of social functioning impairments in an ecologically valid environment. VR assessments and treatments (either ‘immersive’ VR, using a head mounted display, or ‘non-immersive’ VR, using a 2D screen) are increasingly being evaluated in psychosis research. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate whether VR can improve assessment and treatment of social functioning impairments in people with psychosis. Method: PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, and Scopus were searched. The Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies method and tool was used to assess the quality of studies. Results: Database searching identified 2212 titles. A total of 105 studies were screened; 32 studies published between 2005 and 2015 were included in the review (12 immersive VR; 20 non-immersive VR). 75% of studies received an EPHPP global rating of strong. Discussion: VR has potential as a tool to improve assessment and treatment of both cognitive and behavioural components of social functioning impairments in people with psychosis. Treatment packages have focused on general social skills or job interview/vocational skills. Limitations such as small sample sizes, lack of large RCTs, lack of novel VR-specific results, cybersickness, and scope of studies and technology are discussed; and potential advantages of egocentric encoding enabled by immersive VR are explored.
Using virtual reality to assess associations between paranoid ideation and components of social performance
Riches, S. J. (Author). 2016
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy