Virtual Reality for Addressing Depression and Anxiety: A Bibliometric Analysis

Nuru Jingili, Solomon Sunday Oyelere (), Frank Ojwang, Friday Joseph Agbo and Markus B. T. Nyström
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Nuru Jingili: Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 93187 Skellefteå, Sweden
Solomon Sunday Oyelere: Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 93187 Skellefteå, Sweden
Frank Ojwang: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, 96300 Rovaniemi, Finland
Friday Joseph Agbo: School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland, 80100 Joensuu, Finland
Markus B. T. Nyström: Department of Health, Education and Technology Division, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: Virtual reality is an emerging field in mental health and has gained widespread acceptance due to its potential to treat various disorders, such as anxiety and depression. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of virtual reality (VR) use in addressing depression and anxiety from 1995 to 2022. The study analysed 1872 documents using the Scopus database, identifying the field’s most relevant journals and authors. The results indicate that using VR for addressing anxiety and depression is a multidisciplinary field with a wide variety of research topics, leading to significant collaborative research in this area. The Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine was identified as the most relevant journal, while Behavior Research and Therapy was found to be the most cited journal. The analysis of keywords suggests that there is more research on using VR for anxiety and related disorders than for depression. Riva G. was identified as the top author in producing research outputs on VR-AD, and the University of Washington emerged as the leading institution in scientific outputs on VR-AD. Thematic and intellectual analyses helped identify the main themes within the research domain, providing valuable insight into the current and future directions of the field.

Keywords: virtual reality; anxiety; depression; exposure therapy; cognitive behavioural therapy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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