van Bennekom Martine J, de Koning Pelle P, Denys Damiaan
Academic Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Front Psychiatry. 2017 Sep 5;8:163. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00163. eCollection 2017.
To date, a diagnosis in psychiatry is largely based on a clinical interview and questionnaires. The retrospective and subjective nature of these methods leads to recall and interviewer biases. Therefore, there is a clear need for more objective and standardized assessment methods to support the diagnostic process. The introduction of virtual reality (VR) creates the possibility to simultaneously provoke and measure psychiatric symptoms. Therefore, VR could contribute to the objectivity and reliability in the assessment of psychiatric disorders.
In this literature review, we will evaluate the assessment of psychiatric disorders by means of VR environments. First, we investigate if these VR environments are capable of simultaneously provoking and measuring psychiatric symptoms. Next, we compare these measures with traditional diagnostic measures.
We performed a systematic search using PubMed, Embase, and Psycinfo; references of selected articles were checked for eligibility. We identified studies from 1990 to 2016 on VR used in the assessment of psychiatric disorders. Studies were excluded if VR was used for therapeutic purposes, if a different technique was used, or in case of limitation to a non-clinical sample.
A total of 39 studies were included for further analysis. The disorders most frequently studied included schizophrenia ( = 15), developmental disorders ( = 12), eating disorders ( = 3), and anxiety disorders ( = 6). In attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the most comprehensive measurement was used including several key symptoms of the disorder. Most of the studies, however, concerned the use of VR to assess a single aspect of a psychiatric disorder.
In general, nearly all VR environments studied were able to simultaneously provoke and measure psychiatric symptoms. Furthermore, in 14 studies, significant correlations were found between VR measures and traditional diagnostic measures. Relatively small clinical sample sizes were used, impeding definite conclusions. Based on this review, the innovative technique of VR shows potential to contribute to objectivity and reliability in the psychiatric diagnostic process.
迄今为止，精神病学诊断很大程度上基于临床访谈和问卷调查。这些方法的回顾性和主观性导致回忆偏差和访谈者偏差。因此，显然需要更客观和标准化的评估方法来支持诊断过程。虚拟现实（VR）的引入创造了同时诱发和测量精神症状的可能性。因此，VR有助于提高精神障碍评估的客观性和可靠性。
在这篇文献综述中，我们将评估通过VR环境对精神障碍的评估。首先，我们研究这些VR环境是否能够同时诱发和测量精神症状。其次，我们将这些测量方法与传统诊断方法进行比较。
我们使用PubMed、Embase和Psycinfo进行了系统检索；检查所选文章的参考文献是否符合纳入标准。我们确定了1990年至2016年期间关于VR用于精神障碍评估的研究。如果VR用于治疗目的、使用了不同技术或仅限于非临床样本，则排除相关研究。
共纳入39项研究进行进一步分析。研究最频繁的疾病包括精神分裂症（n = 15）、发育障碍（n = 12）、饮食障碍（n = 3）和焦虑症（n = 6）。在注意力缺陷多动障碍中，使用了最全面的测量方法，包括该疾病的几个关键症状。然而，大多数研究关注的是使用VR评估精神障碍的一个方面。
总体而言，几乎所有研究的VR环境都能够同时诱发和测量精神症状。此外，在14项研究中，发现VR测量与传统诊断测量之间存在显著相关性。使用的临床样本量相对较小，妨碍得出明确结论。基于本综述，VR这一创新技术显示出在精神科诊断过程中有助于提高客观性和可靠性的潜力。
