A systematic bibliometric analysis of virtual reality research in mental health: Trends, hotspots, and future directions.

INTRODUCTION

With the increasing maturity of the technology and the gradual reduction of costs, virtual reality(VR) is playing an increasingly important role in clinical therapy.

AIM: This study aims to analyze the current status and developmental trends of VR research in mental health.

METHOD: We utilized Citespace (6.1 R6) to analyze 1116 publications spanning from 1994 to 2022, sourced from the Web of Science. Our analysis included visualization of authorship, institutional affiliations, countries, cited literature, and keywords.

RESULTS

In this study, an overall upward trend in publication numbers from 1994 to 2022. The United States is in an absolute leading position in the application of VR in the field of mental health, with the highest number of contributions (362 papers). Harvard Medical School emerged as the leading institution in terms of publication volume in this field. Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia as dominant research bursts over the past two decades.

DISCUSSION: Recent trends, point to growing research interests in areas such as geriatric mental health, environmental influences, and pain management. The predominant research bursts over the past two decades have been schizophrenia, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, with emerging frontiers in the study of environmental factors and pain.