Trial reportCritical care (London, England)2026
ICU-specific virtual reality for mental health after critical illness: an international three-arm randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in Critical care (London, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSurvivors of critical illness frequently experience symptoms of post-intensive care syndrome (PICS), including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression, with downstream impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We evaluated whether an intensive care unit-specific virtual reality (ICU-VR) video improves mental health outcomes and whether timing (early vs. late) matters.
methodsWe conducted an international, three-arm, multicentre randomized clinical trial across eleven hospitals. Adults (≥ 18 years) with ICU stay ≥ 72 h and mechanical ventilation ≥ 24 h were randomized 1:1:1 to (1) standard care, (2) early ICU-VR (within 7-15 days post-ICU), or (3) late ICU-VR (≈ 3 months, during aftercare). The primary endpoint was PTSD symptom severity at six months (T3) measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (range 0-88). Secondary endpoints included anxiety/depression severity and prevalence, and HRQoL.
resultsWe randomized 344 participants (median age 61 years; 62% male); follow-up among survivors at six months (T3) was 80%. At six months, PTSD symptom severity did not differ between early ICU-VR and control (β = 0.32; 95% CI -3.38 to 4.02; p = 0.87) nor late ICU-VR and control (-0.82; 95% CI -4.62 to 2.97; p = 0.67). No between-group differences were observed for anxiety, depression, or HRQoL (all adjusted p > 0.05). Patients rated ICU-VR highly for improving understanding of the ICU experience and overall satisfaction (median 8/10).
conclusionsIn this multicentre randomized clinical trial, a single ICU-VR video did not improve PTSD, anxiety, depression, or HRQoL at six months versus standard care. Findings should not be generalized to multi-session, therapist-guided, or personalized VR interventions. Future trials should target high-risk patients, make multi-session mandatory, and personalize ICU-VR.
trial registrationThis study was prospectively registered Netherlands: Trial Register/International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, NL9812, October 21, 2021.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.