The top 100 cited papers on mental health and virtual reality: a bibliometric analysis
Yimin Guan, Yaqing Wang, Dongmei Zhuang, Wenzhuo Wei, Lijun Ma, He Du, Chuan Gang Fan, Xiaoming Li · Psychology Health & Medicine · 2025
Virtual reality technology has been widely applied in the field of mental health research. However, to date, no study has employed bibliometric methods to systematically analyze the application of virtual reality in mental health. By searching the Web of Science Core Collection, we have summarized the top 100 cited papers in this field and conducted the first bibliometric study on mental health and virtual reality using CiteSpace. The results indicate that this area has received considerable attention. The United States stands out as the most influential country. The University of London and Emory University are the leading contributing institutions. Rothbaum BO is the most productive author, and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, is the journal with the most publications in this area. The primary focus of research in this domain is on virtual reality therapy for mental disorders, especially virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. These findings may help researchers understand the current state and future trends in the field of mental health and virtual reality.