The Validity of Virtual Environments for Eliciting Emotional Responses in Patients With Eating Disorders and in Controls

Abstract

This article explores the efficacy of virtual environments representing situations that are emotionally significant to patients with eating disorders (ED) to modify depression and anxiety levels both in these patients and in controls. Eighty-five ED patients and 108 students were randomly exposed to five experimental virtual environments (a kitchen with low-calorie food, a kitchen with high-calorie food, a restaurant with high-calorie food, a restaurant with low-calorie food, and a swimming-pool) and to one neutral environment. In the interval between the presentation of each situation, anxiety and depressed mood were assessed. Results of several repeated measures analyses demonstrated that patients show higher levels of anxiety and a more depressed mood after eating, especially high-calorie food, and after visiting the swimming pool than in the neutral room. In contrast, controls only show higher levels of anxiety in the swimming pool. In the rest of the situations they presented a similar mood state as in the neutral room. We concluded that virtual reality is a useful vehicle for eliciting similar emotional reactions to those one would expect in real life situations. Thus, this technology seems well suited for use in experimental studies as well as in evaluative and therapeutic contexts.

Clinical validation of a virtual environment for normalizing eating patterns in eating disorders

“…In recent years, studies have shown that exposure to virtual food produces the same sensations as exposure to real food, using both non-immersive [24] and immersive environments [25].…”

Applications of 3D Simulation in Mental Health: Utilities and New Developments

“…The main clinical studies that have used VR environments in their application to different mental disorders have focused on evaluating the usefulness of these scenarios for generating the behavioral, cognitive and emotional reactions in the person immersed in the virtual world that these same contexts would produce in real life, something which has been widely proven in the many applications studied (e.g., Bordnick et al, 2008;Ferrer-García et al, 2009;Culbertson et al, 2010). Moreover, a large number of studies have concentrated on comparing the effectiveness of this new type of treatment with VR with the usual interventions used, and to date, many case studies, non-systematic studies and controlled studies have shown the effectiveness of VR treatments in a wide range of disorders, such as anxiety, eating disorders, or in addictions, among other alterations (Gutiérrez-Maldonado, 2002).…”

Virtual Reality and Body Dissatisfaction Across the Eating Disorder’s Spectrum

“…Others have demonstrated that virtual environments involving high-caloric food elicit strong emotional responses in ED patients [41], reflecting a fear of gaining weight and an over-evaluation of weight and shape. ED patients also report higher anxiety and depressive symptoms in virtual environments where they virtually eat high-energy food [42]. Another significant environment for ED patients is the swimming pool environment.…”

“…Another significant environment for ED patients is the swimming pool environment. [41,42]. According to Thompson and Chad [43], the high emotional reaction observed in the pool environment also reflects the over-evaluation of weight and shape in ED women.…”

“…The type of virtual environment could differ according to the intensity of weight and shape concerns. For example, Ferrer-Garcia and colleagues [42] found that, in participants without ED, a swimming pool environment is more anxiety provoking than any other virtual environment they used (high and low-calorie kitchen, high and low-calorie restaurant). In fact, the anxiety level of women without ED in the other four virtual environments was equivalent to that of the neutral environment.…”