ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The prolonged coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is likely to cause psychological distress in people. This systematic review aimed to identify the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR)-based psychological intervention among individuals with psychological distress during the COVID-19 crisis. PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, and PsycINFO databases were searched for articles published until July 2022. METHODS: The available citations were deduplicated and screened by two authors using the title and abstract information. Eligibility criteria were constructed according to the PICOT guidelines. Empirical studies of all designs and comparator groups were included if they appraised the impact of an immersive VR intervention on any standardized measure indicative of psychological distress (stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic symptoms) or improvements in quality of life in participants, including COVID-19 patients, medical staff working with COVID-19 patients, and people who had experienced strict social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: The results were discussed using a narrative synthesis because of the heterogeneity between studies. Seven of the studies met the inclusion criteria. There were two randomized controlled trials and five uncontrolled studies on VR interventions. CONCLUSION: All studies reported significant improvement in a wide range of psychological distress during COVID-19, ranging from stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic symptoms to quality of life, supporting the efficacy of VR-based psychological intervention. Our results suggest that VR intervention has potential to ameliorate COVID-19-related psychological distress with efficacy and safety.
ABSTRACT
Perceived stress is associated with low life satisfaction; however, the underlying mechanism is relatively underexplored. This study investigated whether rumination might mediate this link during the highly stressful COVID-19 pandemic. Building on the distinction between the subtypes of rumination, we predicted that reflection and brooding would sequentially mediate this relationship and that maladaptive brooding would negatively influence life satisfaction. A representative sample of 316 adults was recruited from the greater Daegu area, where the first massive outbreak occurred in South Korea. After informed consent was obtained, they completed a package of questionnaires that included demographics, COVID-19-related experiences, perceived stress, life satisfaction, and rumination. A serial mediation analysis showed that reflection and brooding sequentially mediated the relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction. As predicted, only brooding was negatively related to life satisfaction. In contrast, reflection per se was positively related to life satisfaction, and it negatively affected life satisfaction only through brooding. Our results extended the negative effect of brooding, as compared to reflection, in the pandemic. Given that reflection may easily turn into brooding under stress, it will be necessary to develop ways to guide people to counteract brooding while maintaining a reflective self-focus to preserve their well-being.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Research on psychological distress from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has increased significantly, but the factors that can exacerbate or mitigate such distress have remained underexplored. To address the research gap, this study examined whether two types of rumination and perceived social support predict psychological distress during the pandemic. METHODS: Participants were recruited from communities of the greater Daegu area (n=316) where the first massive outbreak in South Korea occurred and most residents underwent substantial disruption of daily life. They completed self-report questionnaires that included measures of psychological distress, event-related rumination, and social support. RESULTS: The hierarchical regression analysis showed that maladaptive intrusive rumination and perceived social support predicted increases and decreases in psychological distress, respectively, even when subjective severity of COVID-19-related experiences was controlled. Putatively adaptive type of rumination (i.e., deliberate rumination) was not a significant predictor concurrently. CONCLUSION: This is among the early endeavors to comprehensively understand risk and protective factors associated with an effective coping strategy against the COVID-19 crisis. Our results indicate that intrusive rumination aggravates but social support mitigates psychological distress during the pandemic, indicating that we can better adapt by differently attending to recent experiences and maintaining perceived social support.