Effects of Virtual Reality-Based Graded Exposure Therapy on PTSD Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Summary & key facts

Researchers pooled results from seven carefully controlled studies to see if a special kind of virtual reality therapy called graded exposure therapy helps people with posttraumatic stress disorder. They found that this graded VR therapy produced a noticeably larger drop in PTSD symptoms than whatever the control groups received. A more basic form of VR exposure therapy did not show a clear benefit. The authors warn that many of the studies were done with military personnel, so we cannot be sure the same results apply to everyone. More studies with virtual scenes tailored to different kinds of trauma are needed.

Key facts:

• The review combined results from seven randomized controlled trials that looked at VR-based graded exposure therapy for PTSD.
• Graded VR exposure therapy showed a substantially larger improvement in PTSD symptoms than control groups in the pooled analysis.
• A simpler form of VR exposure therapy did not show a significant benefit for PTSD symptoms compared to controls.
• Many of the included studies involved military service members, so the results may not apply to civilians or all types of trauma.
• The authors recommend future trials that use virtual environments tailored to a wider range of trauma types to better test who benefits.

Abstract

Previous studies reported that virtual reality (VR)-based exposure therapy (VRET) was a clinically beneficial intervention for specific phobias. However, among VRET, VR-based graded exposure therapy (VR-GET) is little known about its efficacy on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Therefore, this meta-analysis investigated the effects of VR-GET for PTSD symptoms. A literature search yielded seven randomized controlled trials. The differences between conditions regarding the primary outcome of PTSD symptoms in the effect size of the individual study were calculated using Hedges' g. The findings showed VR-GET showed a significantly larger effect size for PTSD symptoms (g = 1.100, p = 0.001), compared to controls. However, no significant difference between conventional VRET and controls was found for PTSD symptoms (g = -0.279, p = 0.970). These findings indicated the superiority of VR-GET for PTSD symptoms compared to controls, supporting the importance of immersive PTSD treatments. Nevertheless, the results need to be interpreted with caution due to the substantial number of military service personnel studies. Future trials, considering individually tailored scenarios in virtual environments to cover a wider range of trauma types, are required to investigate its evidence on treating PTSD.

Topics

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research Stress Responses and Cortisol Traumatic Brain Injury Research

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Anxiety Anxiety disorder Artificial intelligence Clinical psychology Computer science Exposure therapy Internal medicine Intervention (counseling) Medicine Meta-analysis Phobias Posttraumatic stress Psychiatry Psychology Randomized controlled trial Specific phobia Virtual reality Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety PTSD Anxiety or worry Feeling disconnected from others Poor sleep