Chapter 5: Text Analytics in Wellness: Mapping Psychological Benefits of Immersive Technologies

This study explores how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can enhance mental health and emotional well-being. These immersive technologies create personalised, multisensory environments that promote relaxation, emotional resilience, and mindfulness, offering scalable solutions for modern mental health care. Traditional approaches often fail to provide the personalised, accessible care needed to meet global demand. While VR and AR hold great potential, their psychological effects and the connection between user experiences and academic insights remain underexplored. To address these gaps, this study used text-mining techniques to analyse Scopus-indexed abstracts. Methods included Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for uncovering key themes and Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner (VADER) for understanding emotional tones, with visual tools like word clouds and three-dimensional (3D) scatter plots to reveal trends. The study identified five core themes: digital mental health, VR for stress reduction, therapeutic applications, intervention effectiveness, and social–emotional benefits. Sentiment analysis revealed both positive impacts, such as stress relief, and challenges, like accessibility issues. To move forward, the study recommends designing user-centred technologies, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and establishing ethical frameworks that ensure affordability, inclusivity, and privacy. These steps aim to unlock the full potential of VR and AR for creating effective, equitable mental health solutions.