VR social cognition therapy in early psychosis: effectiveness and implementation

As well as specific symptom clusters, psychosis effects important non-symptom domains including social cognition and social-occupational functioning. Impaired social cognitive ability is one of the most important drivers of poor functional outcome with consequent impact on quality of life. Early intervention approaches for psychosis are clinically and cost-effective and provide a key treatment opportunity when impairments in cognition are most malleable and functional outcomes can be maximised. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) has been identified as a revolutionary tool because it addresses current treatment challenges of engagement, potency and generalisation of effects. VR research in psychosis has demonstrated its safety and ecological validity. The proposed project aims to enable the co-production and the evaluation (through a double blind RCT) of a new VR-based therapy, harnessing the latest technology, in order to improve the social cognition and social functioning in young people with first episode psychosis (FEP) or who are at Ultra High Risk (UHR) for psychosis. With a strong grounding in implementation science and partnerships within clinical services, this study also aims to understand how the treatment can be embedded as an adjunct to existing treatments for psychotic disorders to enhance mental health services for young people across Australia and internationally.