A Systematic Literature Review of Virtual Reality-based Reminiscence Therapy for People with Cognitive Impairment or Dementia

Without a cure for dementia, researchers are focusing on reminiscence therapy, which effectively improves patients' quality of life. The use of virtual reality as a complement to this non-pharmacological therapy could help mitigate the loss of oral communication competencies in people with dementia. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate the effect of virtual reality-based reminiscence therapy in people with cognitive impairment or dementia and to understand how the reminiscence program should be designed. The literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases and included results through 31 March 2022. A total of seven articles were included. Overall, the results support the use of virtual reality-based reminiscence therapy in people with cognitive impairment or dementia. In general, virtual reality was found to be pleasant and safe to use, with potential to stimulate communication competencies and lead people to recall positive memories without threatening side effects. However, no changes were observed in behavioral, psychological, or quality of life indicators. In addition, the reminiscence programs were too heterogeneous to trace a clear pattern. The findings of this systematic literature review suggest that virtual reality-based reminiscence therapy for these groups is scarce in literature. It is vital to conduct further research in this area, given that seven articles do neither represent the severity of the conditions nor the possible potential of virtual reality-based reminiscence therapy.