Virtual Reality Might Be the Next Big Thing for Mental Health

The technology holds vast potential for insights into the workings of human brains

Experts used to worry that virtual reality (VR) would damage our brains. These days, however, VR seems more likely to help our gray matter. A new wave of psychological research is pioneering VR to diagnose and treat medical conditions from social anxiety to chronic pain to Alzheimer’s disease. Many of these solutions are still in laboratory testing, but some are already making their way into hospitals and therapists’ offices.

This use of VR to test and tweak the brain is still very new. And with excitement around VR entertainment and gaming fizzling from its 2017 peak, it’s reasonable to question whether VR therapy...