Taking modern psychiatry into the metaverse: Integrating augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies into psychiatric care.

The landscape of psychiatry is ever evolving and has recently begun to be influenced more heavily by new technologies. One novel technology which may have particular application to psychiatry is the metaverse, a three-dimensional digital social platform accessed via augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR). The metaverse allows the interaction of users in a virtual world which can be measured and manipulated, posing at once exciting new possibilities and significant potential challenges and risks. While the final form of the nascent metaverse is not yet clear, the immersive simulation and holographic mixed reality-based worlds made possible by the metaverse have the potential to redefine neuropsychiatric care for both patients and their providers. While a number of applications for this technology can be envisioned, this article will focus on leveraging the metaverse in three specific domains: medical education, brain stimulation, and biofeedback. Within medical education, the metaverse could allow for more precise feedback to students performing patient interviews as well as the ability to more easily disseminate highly specialized technical skills, such as those used in advanced neurostimulation paradigms. Examples of potential applications in brain stimulation and biofeedback range from using AR to improve precision targeting of non-invasive neuromodulation modalities to more innovative practices, such as using physiological and behavioral measures derived from interactions in VR environments to directly inform and personalize treatment parameters for patients. Along with promising future applications, we also discuss ethical implications and data security concerns that arise when considering the introduction of the metaverse and related AR/VR technologies to psychiatric research and care.

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© 2023 Ford, Buchanan, Azeez, Benrimoh, Kaloiani, Bandeira, Hunegnaw, Lan, Gholmieh, Buch and Williams.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

DMB is a founder and shareholder of CanadaNeuro, a mental health company whose work is unrelated to this publication and which did not support this work. DB is a founder, shareholder and employee of Aifred Health, a digital mental health company whose work is unrelated to this publication and which did not support this work. NRW is a named inventor on Stanford-owned intellectual property relating to accelerated TMS pulse pattern sequences and neuroimaging-based TMS targeting; he has served on scientific advisory boards for Otsuka, NeuraWell, Nooma, and Halo Neuroscience; and he has equity/stock options in Magnus Medical, NeuraWell, and Nooma. TJF is an employee of Magnus Medical with company equity/stock options. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.