Dellazizzo Laura, Potvin Stéphane, Bahig Sami, Dumais Alexandre
Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montreal, Canada.
Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada.
NPJ Schizophr. 2019 Jul 23;5(1):11. doi: 10.1038/s41537-019-0079-7.
Youth violence is a complex and multifactorial issue that has severe health and social consequences. While treatment options exist to treat/reduce violence in at-risk populations such as schizophrenia, there remains limitations in the efficacy of current interventions. Virtual reality (VR) appears to be a unique possibility to expose offenders and to train coping skills in virtual situations that are capable of eliciting aggression-relevant behavior without threatening others. The focus of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of studies using VR to manage violence across several at-risk populations, with a particular emphasis on youth with schizophrenia. Despite the encouraging success of VR applications for the treatment of different mental health problems, no studies have explored the usability of VR to specifically treat violence in patients with schizophrenia. A limited number of studies have focused on violence risk factors in other mental health problems (i.e., emotion regulation in individual suffering from post-traumatic disorders) that may be targeted in treatments to reduce the risk of violence. The preliminary studies using VR as a therapeutic element have shown reductions in anger, improvements in conflict-resolution skills as well as in empathy levels, and decreases in aggression. Possible applications of these interventions in youth with schizophrenia will be discussed.
青少年暴力是一个复杂的多因素问题，会产生严重的健康和社会后果。虽然存在治疗/减少高危人群（如精神分裂症患者）暴力行为的治疗方案，但目前干预措施的效果仍存在局限性。虚拟现实（VR）似乎是一种独特的方式，可以让犯罪者接触虚拟情境，并在其中训练应对技能，这些虚拟情境能够引发与攻击相关的行为，同时又不会威胁到他人。本文的重点是全面综述使用VR管理多个高危人群暴力行为的研究，特别强调精神分裂症青少年。尽管VR应用在治疗不同心理健康问题方面取得了令人鼓舞的成功，但尚无研究探讨VR在专门治疗精神分裂症患者暴力行为方面的可用性。少数研究关注了其他心理健康问题中的暴力风险因素（如创伤后应激障碍患者的情绪调节），这些因素可能是治疗中可针对的目标，以降低暴力风险。将VR作为治疗元素的初步研究表明，愤怒情绪有所减少，冲突解决能力和同理心水平有所提高，攻击性也有所降低。将讨论这些干预措施在精神分裂症青少年中的可能应用。
