Background Innovations in virtual reality (VR) technologies have improved the adaptability of its use in therapeutic settings, and VR has shown to be a promising treatment for fear of medical procedures, with research increasing in this area in recent years. Purpose This review aims to collate evidence for the impact of VR on fear of medical procedures. Methods CENTRAL (Cochrane), MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO databases were searched up to October 2020. A mix of experimental and case–control studies were included for review, which evaluated the effectiveness of VR for fear, anxiety, and pain of medical procedures for people with needle phobia, dental phobia, claustrophobia of medical scans, and burn wound care anxiety. Risk of bias (RoB) was assessed by Cochrane and ROBINS-I tools. Results Twenty-eight studies were selected. Some studies included mixed participant groups of young people adults. The interventions varied, with VR used for distraction, hypnosis, or exposure. These were shown to be effective for reducing fear of medical procedures. However, effectiveness for blood-injection-injury phobias and burn wound care patients was unclear. Conclusions Evidence on the effectiveness of VR suggests that it does decrease fear of medical procedures in some situations. However, the RoB assessment illustrated a poor quality of studies across those included in this review, limiting the ability to draw firm general conclusions from the study findings. There is a need for further research exploring the use of VR technologies in the management of anxiety in physical health care settings.

中文翻译：

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使用虚拟技术消除对医疗程序的恐惧：对基于虚拟现实的干预措施有效性的系统审查


背景虚拟现实（VR）技术的创新提高了其在治疗环境中使用的适应性，并且随着近年来该领域的研究不断增加，VR 已被证明是一种有前景的治疗恐惧症的方法。目的 本综述旨在整理 VR 对医疗程序恐惧影响的证据。方法 检索截至 2020 年 10 月的 CENTRAL (Cochrane)、MEDLINE、EMBASE 和 PsychINFO 数据库。纳入了实验和病例对照研究的组合进行审查，这些研究评估了 VR 对医疗过程中的恐惧、焦虑和疼痛的有效性适用于患有针头恐惧症、牙科恐惧症、医疗扫描幽闭恐惧症和烧伤伤口护理焦虑症的人。偏倚风险 (RoB) 通过 Cochrane 和 ROBINS-I 工具进行评估。结果 选择了 28 项研究。一些研究包括年轻人和成年人的混合参与者群体。干预措施多种多样，虚拟现实用于分散注意力、催眠或暴露。这些被证明可以有效减少对医疗程序的恐惧。然而，对于注射血液伤害恐惧症和烧伤伤口护理患者的有效性尚不清楚。结论 VR 有效性的证据表明，在某些情况下，它确实可以减少对医疗程序的恐惧。然而，RoB 评估表明本次综述中的研究质量较差，限制了从研究结果中得出明确的一般结论的能力。需要进一步研究探索 VR 技术在身体保健环境中管理焦虑的用途。