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Mental health

About: Mental health is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 183794 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4340463 citations. The topic is also known as: mental wellbeing.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that VR has the potential to transform the assessment, understanding and treatment of mental health problems, and the treatment possibilities will only be realized if the best immersive VR technology is combined with targeted translational interventions.
Abstract: Mental health problems are inseparable from the environment. With virtual reality (VR), computer-generated interactive environments, individuals can repeatedly experience their problematic situations and be taught, via evidence-based psychological treatments, how to overcome difficulties. VR is moving out of specialist laboratories. Our central aim was to describe the potential of VR in mental health, including a consideration of the first 20 years of applications. A systematic review of empirical studies was conducted. In all, 285 studies were identified, with 86 concerning assessment, 45 theory development, and 154 treatment. The main disorders researched were anxiety (n = 192), schizophrenia (n = 44), substance-related disorders (n = 22) and eating disorders (n = 18). There are pioneering early studies, but the methodological quality of studies was generally low. The gaps in meaningful applications to mental health are extensive. The most established finding is that VR exposure-based treatments can reduce anxiety disorders, but there are numerous research and treatment avenues of promise. VR was found to be a much-misused term, often applied to non-interactive and non-immersive technologies. We conclude that VR has the potential to transform the assessment, understanding and treatment of mental health problems. The treatment possibilities will only be realized if - with the user experience at the heart of design - the best immersive VR technology is combined with targeted translational interventions. The capability of VR to simulate reality could greatly increase access to psychological therapies, while treatment outcomes could be enhanced by the technology's ability to create new realities. VR may merit the level of attention given to neuroimaging.

629 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown seems particularly stressful for younger adults (<35 years), women, people without work, and low income and highest mental health problems in adults under 35 years,Women, people with no work,and low income.

629 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meta-analysis to assess the prevalence of depression, anxiety, distress, and insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic found that the general population and non-medical staff had a lower risk of distress than other populations, and Physicians, nurses, and non -medical staff showed a higher prevalence of insomnia.

628 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The pattern of race-ethnic differences in risk for psychiatric disorders suggests the presence of protective factors that originate in childhood and have generalized effects on internalizing disorders for Hispanics, but not for non-Hispanic Blacks, which has emerged only recently.
Abstract: Social adversity is commonly associated with increased risk for psychiatric disorders (Dohrenwend, 2000). However, community studies in the United States have not found elevated point prevalence of psychiatric disorders among disadvantaged racial and ethnic minority groups (Kessler et al., 1994; Somervell et al., 1989), despite higher levels of social adversity experienced by these groups (Clark et al., 1999; Turner & Lloyd, 2004; Williams, 1999). In the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), the first nationally representative survey of psychiatric disorders conducted in the US, we showed that the lower than expected point prevalence of DSM-III mental disorders among racial-ethnic minorities was attributable exclusively to differences in lifetime risk of these disorders as opposed to course of illness. Indeed, the course of illness tended to be more persistent among minorities than Non-Hispanic Whites in that study (Breslau et al., 2005). Thus, understanding reasons for the lower risk of ever developing a mental disorder appears to be the key to understanding the lower than expected prevalence of mental disorders among disadvantaged racial and ethnic minority groups in the US. In this report we take the next step towards identifying causes of race-ethnic differences in lifetime risk of psychiatric disorders by specifying these differences in greater detail with respect to clinical and sociodemographic characteristics. Using data from a recent national survey, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, we investigate variation in race-ethnic differences across 1) individual DSM-IV disorders, 2) age of onset of disorder, 3) birth cohorts, and 4) educational attainment. Results of these comparisons will help guide the investigation of potential protective factors that result in lower lifetime risk among race-ethnic minorities. Our previous report considered race/ethnic differences in 3 broad classes of disorder: mood, anxiety and substance use disorders. However, it is important to know whether the differences we observed are consistent across disorders within these classes, implicating protective factors with generalized effects, or whether they are attributable to differences in a small number of disorders, implicating factors with disorder specific effects (Aneshensel et al., 1991). In this analysis we test for variation in race/ethnic differences across individual disorders within each class of disorders. In addition, we examine an additional class of disorders, impulse control disorders, that was not included in the earlier survey. Specifying race-ethnic differences in early vs. late age of onset of disorder can help identify the developmental periods during which protective factors exert their influence. If, for instance, reduced risk of psychiatric disorder begins with early onset disorders, we should consider protective factors present in childhood environments rather than adult social experiences. It has been suggested that stressors associated with minority race-ethnicity vary across the lifespan; minority children may be sheltered from the negative impact that discrimination in labor markets and other areas of adult life has on mental health in adults (Gore & Aseltine, 2003). This hypothesis predicts that the lower risk among minorities will be stronger for early than for late onset disorders. Specification of race/ethnic differences with respect to birth cohorts can help identify causal factors by locating the differences historically. This is of interest because the social conditions affecting minorities in the US have changed in recent decades in ways that influence the experience of social adversity, such as income (Levy, 1998) and educational attainment (Kao & Thompson, 2003). However, studies using distress scales have found that race/ethnic differences have not varied from the 1950s through the 1990s despite these changes (Thomas & Hughes, 1986). We do not know the extent to which the same is true for lifetime risk of psychiatric disorders. Continuity in race/ethnic differences across birth cohorts would point to factors that are transmitted across generations despite historical changes in social conditions. The association of disadvantaged minority status with lower lifetime risk of disorders suggests that the relationship between socioeconomic status and risk of onset may vary across race/ethnic groups (Williams, 1997; Williams et al., 1992). Two theories of such variation have been suggested. First, the ‘double jeopardy’ theory suggests that morbidity will be particularly elevated among low SES members of disadvantaged minority groups. This theory was supported by studies using distress scales that found higher levels of distress among Non-Hispanic Blacks relative to Non-Hispanic Whites only among those with low SES (Kessler & Neighbors, 1986; McLeod & Owens, 2004). Second, the ‘declining returns’ theory predicts the opposite pattern, with higher morbidity among minority groups at higher levels of SES. This theory, suggested by studies which found that minorities have lower economic returns to investment in educational credentials (Chiswick, 1988), has been supported in research on indicators of general physical health (Farmer & Ferraro, 2005). With respect to mental health the ‘declining returns’ pattern is also consistent with the suggestion that social stressors are most severe for middle class minorities who have the highest expectations but also face the most severe competition in labor markets (Cole & Omari, 2003; Jackson & Stewart, 2003; Neckerman et al., 1999; Parker & Kleiner, 1966).

628 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20251
20244
202314,684
202229,980
202117,571
202014,764