Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Dec 19, 2024; 14(12): 1783-1787
Published online Dec 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i12.1783
Diminishing restrictive practices in psychiatric wards via virtual reality training: Old wine in a new bottle?
Yan Zeng, Jun-Wen Zhang, Jian Yang
Yan Zeng, Department of Psychology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, China
Jun-Wen Zhang, Jian Yang, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Author contributions: Zhang JW and Yang J conceptualized and designed the research; Zeng Y performed the literature search, analyzed the data, and wrote the original manuscript; Zhang JW and Yang J edited the final manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Education and Teaching Reform Project of the First Clinical College of Chongqing Medical University, No. CMER202305; Natural Science Foundation of Tibet Autonomous Region, No. XZ2024ZR-ZY100(Z); and Program for Youth Innovation in Future Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, China, No. W0138.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian Yang, MD, PhD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 1 Youyi Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China. yangjian@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Received: September 1, 2024
Revised: October 10, 2024
Accepted: November 13, 2024
Published online: December 19, 2024
Processing time: 86 Days and 23.1 Hours
Abstract

This editorial examines the application of virtual reality (VR) training to mitigate restrictive practices (RPs) within psychiatric facilities. RPs include physical restraints, seclusion, and chemical restraints, used to ensure patient safety but with varying usage rates across regions. In recent years, there has been a growing focus on the adverse effects of RPs on both healthcare workers and patients, leading to calls for its reduction. Previous research has shown the efficiency of VR training in RP reduction. This editorial will analyze the limitations of VR training in prior research aimed at reducing RP, emphasizing that the essence of RPs is a medical safety issue, calling for careful differentiation of the causes of RPs, and avoiding the use of AR technology as a "new bottle" for "old wine" to improve the quality and reproducibility of future research in this field.

Keywords: Virtual reality; Virtual reality training; Restrictive practices; Questions; In-patient; Psychiatric wards

Core Tip: There has been an increasing clamor for reducing restrictive practices (RPs), alongside a surge in practical explorations to address this issue. This editorial comments on an article published in the World Journal of Psychiatry, which explored the application of virtual reality (VR) training as a strategy to reduce RPs within psychiatric wards. This editorial emphasizes the need to focus on the underlying issues of medical safety associated with RPs, discusses the strengths and limitations of VR training, and advocates for the differentiation of RPs based on their causes while also cautioning against overcorrection in the clinical practices of reducing RPs.