COVID-19 and mental health: A review and the role of telehealth and virtual reality

Abstract

On March 12, 2020, with more than 20,000 confirmed cases and almost 1000 deaths in the European Region, the World Health Organization classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. As of August 15, 2020, there are 21.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 766,000 deaths from the virus, worldwide. Most governments have imposed quarantine measures of varied degrees of strictness on their populations in attempts to stall the spread of the infection in their communities. However, the isolation may have inflicted long-term psychological injury to the general population and, in particular, to at-risk groups such as the elderly, the mentally ill, children, and frontline healthcare staff. In this article, we offer the most up-to-date review of the effects of COVID-19 confinement on all the disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. We make data-driven predictions of the impact of COVID-19 confinement on mental health outcomes and discuss the potential role of telemedicine and virtual reality in mental health screening, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, thus improving the above outcomes in such a difficult time.

The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Intervention for COVID-19-Related Psychological Distress: A Systematic Review

“…VR had various health usages during the pandemic including physical and cognitive rehabilitation, pain management, treatment of psychological disorders, and healthcare professional training [ 21 ]. Also, VR has the potential to facilitate remote therapies that can be more consistent, scalable, and available [ 22 ].…”

“…Prior studies revealed the potential of digital therapeutic technology like as immersive VR that offer cost-effective, scalable, and on-demand solution to address mental problems. Since COVID-19 era has prolonged yet, VR intervention has the potential strength to minimize face-to-face intervention [ 22 ]. Despite the growing importance and necessity of distant-delivered treatment or non-directive treatment for psychiatric problems in this pandemic era, there has not been much research related to VR interventions for COVID-19-related psychological distress [ 35 ].…”

“…21 Also, VR has the potential to facilitate remote therapies that can be more consistent, scalable, and available. 22 Different from traditional face-to-face psychotherapy, a combination of visual and auditory stimuli in VR can be used to create an immersive experience, which may reduce perceived distress and negative affect, and induce relaxation and posi-tive affect. 23 VR interventions have been developed for various psychological and psychiatric conditions.…”

“…Since COVID-19 era has prolonged yet, VR intervention has the potential strength to minimize face-to-face intervention. 22 Despite the growing importance and necessity of distant-delivered treatment or non-directive treatment for psychiatric problems in this pandemic era, there has not been much research related to VR interventions for COVID-19-related psychological distress. 35 Although various studies have found that VR-based therapies could be beneficial for various mental health disorders, there has been a paucity of information on whether beneficial effect of VR-based intervention could be generalized into patients and medical staff with COVID-19-related mental-health problems.…”