26. Evaluation of the efficacy of VR-based intelligent sports games on adolescent patients with depression

Abstract Background Adolescent depression refers to a mental disorder characterized by persistent low mood and loss of interest in adolescents aged 13 to 19 years old, which belongs to the category of mental illness. With the current increase in study pressure and changes in social patterns and other factors, the incidence of depression among teenagers is increasing. Virtual Reality (VR) technology can help patients with depression due to its immersive, customizable and sensory interactive features. Intelligent sports games based on VR may enhance users' sense of participation and fun in sports through immersive experiences and intelligent interaction. This study aims to explore the therapeutic effect of VR-based intelligent sports games on adolescent patients with depression. Through comparative experiments, the changes in the therapeutic effects of adolescents under different treatment methods were analyzed to explore the clinical application potential of this technology. Methods The study randomly selected 100 adolescent patients with depression aged 13 to 19 years old as research subjects, with a male to female ratio of 1:1, and excluded patients with severe suicidal tendencies and contraindications to the use of VR equipment. They were randomly divided into experimental group and control group, with 50 patients in each group. In addition to using traditional treatment methods, patients in the experimental group also need to wear VR equipment, enter intelligent sports games according to the VR equipment, and follow the voice in the VR equipment to complete various sports such as light yoga, breathing training, and morning jogging. Virtual rewards will be issued to patients who complete the sports to stimulate the patients' intrinsic motivation. The control group used traditional treatment methods without any other intervention. The cycle is 3 months, with intervention twice a week, 30 minutes each time. Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores, and Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS) were used to record the patient's situation before and after the intervention to evaluate the patient's depression relief. Results The results showed that after 3 months of intervention, the average decrease in CDI scores of the 50 patients in the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p<.01). The CDI scores of the experimental group decreased by an average of 4.2 points, while the CDI scores of the control group only decreased by 2.3 points. And the mean decreases in the BDI score and SAS score of the experimental group were 5.2 points and 4.8 points respectively, which were significantly better than the 3.1 points and 2.9 points of the control group (p<.01). Discussion Research results show that after using VR intelligent sports games for intervention, the depressive symptoms of adolescent depression patients are significantly relieved, which can provide support for ensuring the physical and mental health of adolescents. In order to help more adolescent patients with depression relieve their symptoms, VR intelligent sports games can be used as an auxiliary treatment project for patients with depression in the future to treat adolescent depression.