Preventing anorexia nervosa through Cognitive-Behavioral feedback in an affective game

Abstract

As experts point out, the number of technological systems that deal with mental disorders or that try to prevent them is reduced. To solve those issues we modeled the prevention of mental disorders from a social, medical and technological perspective. We found that one way to prevent a disorder is by addressing its cognitive-behavioral components. Therefore, we decided to follow guidelines from the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). And with this information we developed an affective game to prevent anorexia nervosa in young students. Our game uses Love Coins, a cognitive-behavioral reward system inspired by CBT and emotional feedback from affective games, to estimate the players' performance and compliance with health recommendations. In this work we present our conceptual design, results from a pilot study, the limitations of our scope and future work aimed at developing a framework of use.