JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

There is a clear need for enhanced mental health assessment, depressive symptom evaluation being no exception. A promising approach to this aim is utilising Virtual Reality (VR), that entails the potential of adding a wider set of assessment domains with enhanced ecological validity. However, whilst several studies have utilised VR for both diagnostic and treatment purposes, its acceptance, in particular how exposure to virtual environments affect populations with psychiatric conditions remains unknown.

Objective:

The current study reports on the acceptability, usability and cybersickness levels of a pilot VR-environment designed for the purpose of differentiating between individuals with depressive symptoms.

Methods:

The study, conducted in Italy, included 50 healthy controls and 50 individuals with mild to moderate depressive symptoms and employed an observational design with circa 30-minute VR exposure followed by a self-report questionnaire battery.

Results:

Results indicate that the majority found VR acceptable for the purposes of mental health screening and treatment. However, for diagnostics, there was a clear preference for VR to be used by mental health professionals as a supplementary tool, as opposed to a standalone solution. In practice, following exposure to the pilot VR-environment, generally good levels of acceptability and usability were reported, but areas in need of improvement were identified (such as self-efficacy). Self-reported cybersickness levels were considerably higher among those with depressive symptoms. This finding raises questions about the potential interplay between underlying somatic symptoms of depression and VR-induced cybersickness and calls for more attention from the scientific community both in terms of methodology as well as clinical and theoretical implications.

Conclusions:

Conclusively, user support indicates a potential for VR to aid mental health assessment, but further research is needed to understand how exposure to virtual environments might affect populations with psychiatric symptoms.