Examining the Safety and Feasibility of Using Virtual Reality to Assess Suicide Risk

Objective: Our ability to understand suicidal causes is hindered given that laboratory manipulation is unethical or unfeasible. Virtual Reality (VR) technologies may offer a practical translational approach to studying suicide causes. However, ethical considerations need to be considered when utilizing VR for suicide research, particularly examining the possibility of increasing suicidal ideation. The following study examined differences in self-reported suicide scores before and after engaging in a VR game that created a virtual suicide choice paradigm. Method Participants (n = 145, 79.9% female, 59.9% white, 81.3% heterosexual) were college students exposed to a VR experience called Richie's Plank Experience , where they engaged in a virtual suicide choice paradigm by choosing whether to jump off a plank. Participants completed a measure of suicide ideation before and after engaging in this VR scenario. Results Frequencies indicated that 40.1% of the sample endorsed having suicidal ideation, 22.1% had a past suicide attempt, and 15.2% (n = 22) chose to jump off the plank and engage in the virtual suicide choice paradigm. Results showed a reduction in acute suicidal ideation immediately after completing a virtual suicide choice paradigm., t (140) = 4.85, p  < .001. Conclusions Results suggested that acute suicidal ideation decreased immediately after completing a virtual suicide choice paradigm. Additionally, VR may be a safe, ethical, and feasible laboratory-based method to assess suicide behaviors and underlying mechanisms of suicide risk in a controlled manner. Importantly, VR may allow researchers to explore novel ways to assess suicide and develop suicide-focused treatments that could decrease suicide risk. Important limitations to consider include that long-term effects of suicidal ideation were not assessed and sample generalizability.