The Effects of Relaxation Using Virtual Reality in Forensic Psychiatric Patients. A Randomized Cross-over Clinical Trial

During this clinical Cross-over study, it will be investigated whether the use of Virtual Reality (VR) is a valuable application to achieve relaxation in forensic psychiatric patients within the PC Sint-Jan Baptist, Zelzate, Belgium. Due to the fact that very realistic situations can be created in VR environments that forensic psychiatric patients normally cannot experience due to their limited freedom, it seems to be an extra important asset for them that meets the limitations of confinement and freedom-restricting measures. In addition, the highly immersive character of the application supports patients who are unable to perform a standard relaxation exercise through their own imagination or empathy.

This study investigates the short- and medium-term effect of VRelax on both acute and chronic stress and compares it with a standard relaxation exercise of choice (TAU).

The relaxation software that that will be used in the study is VRelax (www.vrelax.com), which is available in Dutch (and English) for which the results of a first crossover randomized controlled trial was recently published.

The research design is a crossover randomized controlled trial with two parts: a standard relaxation of choice and a VR relaxation using the VRelax software. The VRelax app contains 360˚ VR videos of relaxing natural environments. The variety of landscapes includes beaches, mountains, proximity to animals, etc. Interactive elements are embedded in the videos, for example a game of popping air bubbles underwater, shooting stars in a night sky and audio tracks of relaxation exercises.

The study population consists of forensic psychiatric patients (depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder or psychotic disorder, borderline, antisocial disorder,... (DSM-5 diagnosis)) who reside in the Sint-Jan Baptist psychiatric hospital in Zelzate, Belgium.