Can Virtual Reality Be Used in Therapy? – A Video Review

YouTube Review by Ava Mason

Can Virtual Reality Be Used in Therapy? Short answer – yes. Long answer – in several different ways. If you’re not in the mood to scour through several papers on various different applications of VR in mental health, Ava Mason made this 20-minute video going through some of the findings. We reached out to her if we could use her video and she was happy to oblige. Check it out:

Ava explains how virtual reality in therapy has been implemented for various disorders, ranging from anxiety disorders to bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, PTSD, among others. She then gives a meta-review on the VR treatment trials to show the strengths, limitations, and future directions that virtual reality in therapy could take.

The papers reviewed:

Parsons and Rizzo (2008). Affective outcomes of virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety and specific phobias: A meta-analysis. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 39(3), 250-261.

Dellazizzo et al. (2020). Evidence on Virtual Reality–Based Therapies for Psychiatric Disorders: Meta-Review of Meta-Analyses. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(8)e20889. doi: 10.2196/20889.

Rothbaum et al. (1996). Virtual Reality Exposure for Fear of Flying Therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34(5-6), 477-481.

Freeman et al. (2018). Automated psychological therapy using immersive virtual reality for treatment of fear of heights: a single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(8), P625-P632. DOI:

Valmaggia, Gayer Anderson & Lecce. (2020). I think: The relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and paranoid symptoms in adolescence: a virtual reality study

Mohammadi et al. (2018). Detecting allocentric and egocentric navigation deficits in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using virtual reality. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 28(3):398-415. DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2017.1369888

Kandalft et al. (2012). Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training for Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43 34-44.

Park et al. (2011). A virtual reality application in role-plays of social skills training for schizophrenia: A randomized, controlled trial. Psychiatry Research, 189(2), 166-172.

Percie du Sert et al. (2018). Virtual reality therapy for refractory auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A pilot clinical trial. Schizophrenia Research, 197, 176-181.

Rothbaum et al. (1999). Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD Vietnam Veterans: A Case Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 12(2), 263-71. doi: 10.1023/A:1024772308758.