Efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops as a result of directly experiencing, witnessing, or being repeatedly exposed to aversive details of, a potentially traumatic event such as death, combat, sexual assault, or serious injury. It involves a persistent feeling of fear that results from inadequate consolidation of trauma memory. PTSD negatively impacts patients' daily lives and is associated with a higher risk of death. The downside of trauma-focused imaginal exposure therapy is the inability of patients to recall the underlying traumatic event and its effects. The development of modern technology has made it possible to overcome the downside. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is now available for alternative choice of PTSD therapy. VRET is allowing to create traumatic stimuli that are more controlled and realistic. VRET supports wider methodologies in clinical studies because it supports standardization duration and type of exposure for all patients. This study aimed to verify the efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).Methods: The search strategy was conducted through PubMed, LinkSpringer, and LIVIVO. About 71 articles were retrieved using ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ and ‘virtual reality exposure’ keywords. Further, screening was carried out and resulted in 8 articles. In the end, four articles were included. To be eligible, the articles should be randomized controlled trial articles, published from 2011-2121, and published in English.Results: Four RCTs included in this study reported that VRET has a significant effect in reducing CAPS and PTSD symptoms. One study also reported that VRET could help with depressive symptoms and reduce autonomic symptoms such as heart rate as a response to trauma cues. Conclusions: VRET has an obvious and significant impact on alleviating PTSD symptoms, even though if there were a more standardized protocol or more diverse RCT the effect and use of VRET could be even more promising thus making VRET has more ground to be applied to the general population.