Music, audio-visuals or virtual reality for dental anxiety?

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This review of the effectiveness of relaxing music, audio-visuals (AV), and virtual reality (VR) in reducing dental anxiety associated with tooth extraction included 11 RCTs. The findings suggest that music performed better than VR and AV . However the limited number of studies and variation in anxiety scales, musical and visual interventions used means that the findings should be interpreted cautiously.

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Virtual reality therapy for psychosis: positive patient experiences and few side effects

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Steven Parkes considers a randomised controlled trial exploring the satisfaction and side effects of gameChange, a virtual reality intervention targeting anxiety in every day situations for patients with psychosis.

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Virtual reality distraction interventions for dental anxiety in paediatric patients

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This review of virtual reality (VR) distraction interventions in alleviating dental anxiety in paediatric patients included 12 RCTs. The findings suggest VR could be an effective approach to alleviating dental anxiety in paediatric patients.

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Digital mental health technologies: useful, usable, and safe?

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Cara Richardson and Stephanie Allan summarise a recent paper focusing on the growing field of digital psychiatry and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality.

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Adult dental anxiety – management strategies

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This review of current management strategies for adult patients with dental anxiety in the dental clinic included 54 studies. Most of the psychotherapeutic behavioural strategies provided some benefits but there was limited supporting evidence for some approaches. Pharmocological approaches were not included.

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Changing the game: how virtual reality treatment can help people with psychotic disorders get back into the world

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Imogen Bell summarises the gameChangeVR trial of virtual reality for agoraphobic avoidance and distress in patients with psychosis.

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Living well with dementia: what’s the impact of auditory hallucinations?

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Clarissa Giebel reviews a recent study exploring the impact of auditory hallucinations on ‘living well’ with dementia using findings from the IDEAL programme.

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Virtual reality for mental health: are there any freely available apps that show promise?

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Imogen Bell summarises a recent review of virtual reality experiences as tools to support mental health therapy, which finds some freely available applications that may show promise for mental health.

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Is virtual reality the future of schizophrenia spectrum therapy?

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Stefanie Sturm blogs a systematic review which finds sparse, but promising support for the use of virtual reality to treat schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

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The potential of virtual reality to address social functioning impairments in people with psychosis

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Andie Ashdown and Theophanis Kyriacou summarise a systematic review on virtual reality-based assessment and treatment of social functioning impairments in psychosis.

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