Immersive virtual reality serious games for schizophrenia negative symptomatology

Abstract

Studies have shown that Virtual Reality (VR) games can be used to address negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Yet, while the traditional forms of treatments have been validated for years, treatments that use VR are still quite recent and require a lot of testing and improvement before they achieve the same level of validation. A VR serious game was developed to assess the development, usage and validity of these systems. Twenty-one healthy subjects participated in the trials of the developed game. The positive results obtained reinforce the belief that this type of system has a strong potential as a complement to the current, more traditional, forms of therapy. The application of these kinds of systems may increase substantially the distribution of therapy, as well as decrease its costs, allowing more people to gain access to it.