{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,18]],"date-time":"2026-04-18T07:31:04Z","timestamp":1776497464417,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,23]],"date-time":"2021-10-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1634947200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100008530","name":"European Regional Development Fund","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042."]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100008530","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Healthcare"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder with symptoms that can severely affect patients\u2019 quality of life. While drug administration inhibits most of the positive symptoms, it fails to effectively treat the negative symptoms and in turn relies on rehabilitation therapies. With technological progress, virtual reality (VR) has been the target of recent studies in terms of mental health rehabilitation and has been shown to be a tool with ecological validity in order to introduce the individual to situations similar to their daily life. Methods: From July to August 2021, we conducted a systematic review with the purpose of understanding the impact of virtual reality rehabilitation on negative symptoms and psychosocial rehabilitation in the schizophrenia spectrum. The searches were performed in the databases Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed. Results: In our search, we identified 201 results, where 108 duplicates were excluded, resulting in a final balance of 93. After reading and assessing the titles and abstracts, 66 studies were excluded. Of the remaining 27 reports, 23 were excluded for not meeting the previously defined eligibility criteria, resulting in the inclusion of four studies in this systematic review. Conclusions: The available data on the specific topic was limited and could have been more complete. However, in our review, we were able to identify statistically relevant results demonstrating the effectiveness of intervention. We could find medium to large effects, allowing VR to be an ally for rehabilitation of symptoms related to schizophrenia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare9111429","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,24]],"date-time":"2021-10-24T22:06:16Z","timestamp":1635113176000},"page":"1429","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Virtual Reality Rehabilitation\u2019s Impact on Negative Symptoms and Psychosocial Rehabilitation in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8583-0406","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andr\u00e9","family":"Novo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), R. Pl\u00e1cido da Costa, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Research Center in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics (CeDRI), 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8609-3575","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J\u00e9ssica","family":"Fons\u00eaca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Research Center in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics (CeDRI), 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"given":"B\u00e1rbara","family":"Barroso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Research Center in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics (CeDRI), 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Manuel","family":"Guimar\u00e3es","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Research Center in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics (CeDRI), 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Avenida Abade de Ba\u00e7al, Mental Health Department, Unidade Local de Sa\u00fade do Nordeste, 5301-852 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Afonso","family":"Louro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Avenida Abade de Ba\u00e7al, Mental Health Department, Unidade Local de Sa\u00fade do Nordeste, 5301-852 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"given":"H\u00e9lder","family":"Fernandes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Rua Jos\u00e9 Alberto Reis, Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing (UICISA), 3000-232 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9170-5078","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rui Pedro","family":"Lopes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Research Center in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics (CeDRI), 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2151-7944","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo","family":"Leit\u00e3o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"},{"name":"Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, Research Center in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics (CeDRI), 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Barbato, A. 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