The use of virtual reality (VR) exposure for reducing contamination fear and disgust: Can VR be an effective alternative exposure technique to in vivo?

İnözü, Müjgan; Çelikcan, Ufuk; Akın, Burçin; Cicek, Nuray Mustafaoglu

doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2020.100518

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Participants were instructed to explore the environments, noting details, and manipulating available objects. These environments can be considered typical for OCD VR therapy, and they are presented at various degrees of cleanliness, from completely clean to completely filthy (Inozu et al 2020 ; Laforest et al 2016 ). Additionally, the experience of moving around in these rooms should be comparable to those of any VR program where the user can explore spaces.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focusing on cybersickness: pervasiveness, latent trajectories, susceptibility, and effects on the virtual reality experience

et al. 2022

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Although virtual reality (VR) usage has become widespread in the last decade, its adoption has been hampered by experiences of user discomfort known as cybersickness. The present study, in line with the “2020 cybersickness R&D agenda”, sought to provide a broad examination of the cybersickness phenomenon, assessing its pervasiveness, latent trajectories, impacts on the VR experience, and predictor variables. The study was composed of 92 participants living in the Dominican Republic with ages ranging from 18 to 52 years ( M = 26.22), who experienced a 10-min VR immersion in two environments designed for psychotherapy. The results indicated that cybersickness was pervasive, with 65.2% of the participants experiencing it, and 23.9% severely. Additionally, the latent trajectories of cybersickness were positive and curvilinear, with large heterogeneity across individuals. Cybersickness also had a substantive negative impact on the user experience and the intentions to adopt the VR technology. Finally, motion sickness susceptibility, cognitive stress, and recent headaches uniquely predicted greater severity of cybersickness, while age was negatively related. These combined results highlight the critical role that cybersickness plays on the VR experience and underscore the importance of finding solutions to the problems, such as technological advancements or special usage protocols for the more susceptible individuals. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10055-022-00636-4.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focusing on cybersickness: pervasiveness, latent trajectories, susceptibility, and effects on the virtual reality experience

et al. 2022

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“…After this first promising pilot study, only two other trials into the efficacy of VR ERP have been published. The first concerns a nonclinical trial with participants ( n = 21) with high fear of contamination, who received three sessions of VR ERP (Inozu et al, 2020 ). It was shown that participants experienced less anxiety and disgust and a reduced urge to wash their hands in comparison with healthy controls.…”

Section: Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of virtual reality in assessment and treatment of anxiety and related disorders

Meyerbröker

Morina

2021

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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In recent years the development of new virtual environments has been qualitatively high and fast at the same time, but the dissemination of virtual reality (VR) in clinical practice is still scarce. The aim of this review is to give an insight into the state of the art of the use of VR as an assessment tool and treatment intervention in anxiety and related disorders as posttraumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders.Besides an overview into the efficacy of VR, a summary will be given on assumed working mechanisms in virtual reality exposure therapy and how this aligns with current theoretical models. Further, it will be discussed how VR is accepted by patients and research into the reluctance of therapist to use this technology during treatment with focus on the therapeutic alliance and how it may be influenced by the use of VR. Finally, we discuss clinical and future issues as, for

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“…In a pilot study conducted with eight OCD patients and eight healthy controls, a VR game was able to trigger and assess OCD symptoms that are related to contamination, doubt, and symmetry (van Bennekom et al, 2017). The results of a recent study conducted with a small analog sample (n = 9 in the experimental group) indicated that repeated VR-based exposure sessions could be effective in the reduction of contamination fear (Inozu et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the number of studies that specifically apply VR exposure to the fear of contamination is limited. Additionally, the first trials were pilot studies that were conducted with a very small number of participants (Belloch et al, 2014;Inozu et al, 2020;Laforest, Bouchard, Cretu et al, 2016;van Bennekom et al, 2017). Another major limitation was the lack of control groups in previous studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of virtual reality as an anxiety and disgust provoking tool: The use of VR exposure in individuals with high contamination fear

İnözü¹,

Çelikcan²,

Trak³

et al. 2021

Cyberpsychology

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Preliminary studies have provided promising results on the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) interventions for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The present study investigated whether VR scenarios that were developed for contamination concerns evoke anxiety, disgust, and the urge to wash in individuals with high (n = 33) and low (n = 33) contamination fear. In addition, the feasibility of VR exposure in inducing disgust was examined through testing the mediator role of disgust in the relationship between contamination anxiety and the urge to wash. Participants were immersed in virtual scenarios with varying degrees of dirtiness and rated their level of anxiety, disgust, and the urge to wash after performing the virtual tasks. Data were collected between September and December 2019. The participants with high contamination fear reported higher contamination-related ratings than those with low contamination fear. The significant main effect of dirtiness indicated that anxiety and disgust levels increased with increasing overall dirtiness of the virtual scenarios in both high and low contamination fear groups. Moreover, disgust elicited by VR mediated the relationship between contamination fear and the urge to wash. The findings demonstrated the feasibility of VR in eliciting emotional responses that are necessary for conducting exposure in individuals with high contamination fear. In conclusion, VR can be used as an alternative exposure tool in the treatment of contamination-based OCD.

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The use of virtual reality (VR) exposure for reducing contamination fear and disgust: Can VR be an effective alternative exposure technique to in vivo?

Cited by 23 publications

References 53 publications

Focusing on cybersickness: pervasiveness, latent trajectories, susceptibility, and effects on the virtual reality experience

Focusing on cybersickness: pervasiveness, latent trajectories, susceptibility, and effects on the virtual reality experience

The use of virtual reality in assessment and treatment of anxiety and related disorders

Assessment of virtual reality as an anxiety and disgust provoking tool: The use of VR exposure in individuals with high contamination fear

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