ArticlePsychiatry investigation2025
Pilot Trial: Impact of a Virtual Reality Stress Reduction Program on Healthcare and Information Technology Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Article in Psychiatry investigation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Feasibility of a brief group-based immersive 360° mindfulness program for stress-related outcomes in health sciences students: a 4-week pre-post pilot study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Working under pressure: How virtual reality and psychoeducation shape stress and moral distress responses in nurses.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study evaluated the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) based stress reduction program tailored for healthcare and information technology (IT) professionals during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic.
methodsThe 2-week program, based on forest healing principles, was designed to alleviate occupational stress and improve sleep quality. Participants (n=54; 46 healthcare, 8 IT professionals) underwent pre- and post-intervention assessments using validated psychological scales and physiological measurements.
resultsResults showed significant reductions in stress (Perceived Stress Scale [PSS], p=0.001) and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS] anxiety, p=0.002) across all participants. Healthcare professionals demonstrated significant decreases in depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9, p=0.015), anxiety (HADS anxiety, p<0.001), and stress (PSS, p=0.001). Unexpectedly, weekday sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) worsened in the healthcare group (p=0.013). The IT group showed no significant changes, possibly due to the small sample size. Physiological measurements revealed significant differences between groups post-intervention, including melatonin levels (p=0.001) and electrocardiogram values (p=0.031), suggesting occupation-specific responses to VR interventions.
conclusionDespite limitations such as unequal sample sizes, this study provides valuable insights into the potential of VR-based stress management programs. The findings underscore the need for occupation-specific approaches and further research with larger, balanced samples to validate these results and explore long-term effects.
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Registered trials
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