title: Virtual reality in the psychological treatment for mental health problems: An systematic review of recent evidence.
abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a review of controlled studies of the use of Virtual Reality in psychological treatment (VRT). Medline, PsychInfo, Embase and Web of Science were searched. Only studies comparing immersive virtual reality to a control condition were included. The search resulted in 1180 articles published between 2012 and 2015, of these, 24 were controlled studies. The reviewed studies confirm the effectiveness of VRT compared to treatment as usual, and show similar effectiveness when VRT is compared to conventional treatments. Current developments and future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom; South London and Maudsley NHH Trust, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Lucia.Valmaggia@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Lucia R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Valmaggia
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: leilatalia@hotmail.co.uk.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Latif
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: matthew.kempton@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kempton
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom; South London and Maudsley NHH Trust, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: maria.rus-calafell@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rus-Calafell
mesh_terms: D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
keywords: Mental health; Systematic review; Virtual reality