López del Hoyo Y, Elices M, Garcia-Campayo J. Mental health in the virtual world: Challenges and opportunities in the metaverse era. World J Clin Cases 2024; 12(17): 2939-2945 [PMID: 38898837 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i17.2939]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Matilde Elices, PhD, PsyD, Postdoc, Mental Health Research Group, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Dr Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain.melices@researchmar.net
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Opinion Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Jun 16, 2024; 12(17): 2939-2945 Published online Jun 16, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i17.2939
Mental health in the virtual world: Challenges and opportunities in the metaverse era
Yolanda López del Hoyo, Matilde Elices, Javier Garcia-Campayo
Yolanda López del Hoyo, Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50009, Spain
Matilde Elices, Mental Health Research Group, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Barcelona 08003, Spain
Javier Garcia-Campayo, Department of Psychiatry, Miguel Servet Hospital, Aragon Institute for Health Research, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50009, Spain
Author contributions: López del Hoyo Y and García-Campayo J conceived the idea for the manuscript; López del Hoyo Y, Elices M, and García-Campayo J reviewed the literature and drafted the manuscript.
Supported byInstituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), with group funds the Research Network on Chronicity, Primary Care and Health Promotion (RICAPPS, RD21/0016/0005) that is part of the Results-Oriented Cooperative Research Networks in Health (RICORS) (Carlos III Health Institute), co-funded by the European Union “NextGeneration EU/PRTR” funds and with group funds Mental health research group in Primary Care (B17_23R), which is part of the Department of Innovation, Research, and University in the Government of Aragón (Spain).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare having no conflicts of interest.
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: Matilde Elices, PhD, PsyD, Postdoc, Mental Health Research Group, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Dr Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain.melices@researchmar.net
Received: December 24, 2023 Revised: January 24, 2024 Accepted: February 29, 2024 Published online: June 16, 2024 Processing time: 163 Days and 1.8 Hours
Abstract
Current rates of mental illness are worrisome. Mental illness mainly affects females and younger age groups. The use of the internet to deliver mental health care has been growing since 2020 and includes the implementation of novel mental health treatments using virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. A new three dimensional digital environment, known as the metaverse, has emerged as the next version of the Internet. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality will create fully immersive, experiential, and interactive online environments in the metaverse. People will use a unique avatar to do anything they do in their “real” lives, including seeking and receiving mental health care. In this opinion review, we reflect on how the metaverse could reshape how we deliver mental health treatment, its opportunities, and its challenges.
Core Tip: The metaverse is a new three-dimensional environment where technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality converge. In this opinion review, we discussed its transformative potential for mental health.
