Virtual reality as a novel therapeutic tool in psychiatry: will virtual reality intervention for families rescue hikikomori?

Purpose of review: Digital technology is beginning to revolutionize psychiatry. Virtual reality (VR) allows users to experience a virtual space through their three primary senses. In psychiatry, social skills training (SST), including role-play, has been introduced in occupational therapy to improve patients' social abilities. In face-to-face SST, the therapist's leadership skills and the patient's ability to deal with situations are necessary. VR could resolve such limitations. Herein, we introduce recent advances in VR for psychiatry.

Recent findings: The introduction of VR has improved the social skills of patients with schizophrenia, social anxiety, and autism spectrum disorder. We have introduced VR not only for psychiatric patients themselves but also for their family members to improve their skills in intervening with the patients, especially hard-to-reach patients such as hikikomori (social withdrawal). A pilot trial was conducted involving several family cases living with people with hikikomori, and this approach showed promising effectiveness.

Summary: VR has the potential to overcome the problems of conventional treatments by enabling experiential learning. In the future, VR is expected to support not only patients with mental disorders but also to improve the skills of therapists and caregivers, including family members. Empirical research through industry-academia collaboration is desirable for spreading VR-based interventions in psychiatry.