The Use of Virtual Reality Technology in the Treatment of Anxiety and Other Psychiatric Disorders

Course overview

The primary focus of this course is to review the available literature regarding the effectiveness of incorporating virtual reality (VR) within the psychiatric treatment of a wide range of psychiatric disorders, with a specific focus on exposure-based intervention for anxiety disorders. This review will provide an overview of the history of the development of VR based technology and its use within psychiatric treatment, an overview of the empirical evidence for VR based treatment, the benefits for using VR for psychiatric research and treatment, recommendations for how to incorporate VR into psychiatric care, and future directions for VR based treatment and clinical research. This course is based upon material published in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry and is available as an open access article. This course on virtual reality as a treatment for anxiety is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their understanding of the use of virtual reality in psychiatric treatment. The course material includes a literature review of virtual reality-based treatments. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal.