Opportunities of Virtual Reality in the Therapy of Children and Adolescents

Virtual reality (VR) has been successfully used for decades in the treatment of anxiety disorders. With the advent of affordable hardware (VR goggles) and the increase of commercial providers for corresponding software, VR therapy is also gaining importance beyond classical application areas. Apart from adults, children and adolescents are increasingly benefitting from VR therapy. Therefore, this article aims to provide a cursory insight into the opportunities of VR in pediatrics as well as child and adolescent psychiatry. The areas of application presented here range from exposure therapy with VR, its use in eating disorders, and VR-based training for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to VR-based biofeedback systems and VR interventions for acute pain conditions.