The VEPSY UPDATED Project: Clinical Rationale and Technical Approach

Abstract

More than 10 years ago, Tart (1990) described virtual reality (VR) as a technological model of consciousness offering intriguing possibilities for developing diagnostic, inductive, psychotherapeutic, and training techniques that can extend and supplement current ones. To exploit and understand this potential is the overall goal of the "Telemedicine and Portable Virtual Environment in Clinical Psychology"--VEPSY UPDATED--a European Community-funded research project (IST-2000-25323, www.cybertherapy.info). Particularly, its specific goal is the development of different PC-based virtual reality modules to be used in clinical assessment and treatment of social phobia, panic disorders, male sexual disorders, obesity, and eating disorders. The paper describes the clinical and technical rationale behind the clinical applications developed by the project. Moreover, the paper focuses its analysis on the possible role of VR in clinical psychology and how it can be used for therapeutic change.

Eating in eating disorders

“…The Yale Brown Cornell Eating Disorder Scale (Sunday, Halmi, & Einhorn, 1995) and the Accommodation and Enabling scale (Sepulveda, Kyriacou, & Treasure, 2009) measure some of the rituals and behaviours related to the purchasing, preparing and consuming of food. A European group has developed an innovative method using food exposure in a virtual reality kitchen to assess food related behaviour (Riva et al, 2002(Riva et al, , 2003. The Accomodation and Enabling Scale, on the other hand, use family members as informants (Sepulveda et al, 2009).…”

“…The Accomodation and Enabling Scale, on the other hand, use family members as informants (Sepulveda et al, 2009). A European group has developed an innovative method using food exposure in a virtual reality kitchen to assess food related behaviour (Riva et al, 2002(Riva et al, , 2003. People with eating disorder have been found to engage emotionally in this environment, with preliminary studies suggesting it to be a valuable tool in eliciting some of the specific cognitions, affects and behaviours in relation to food (Gorini, Griez, Petrova, & Riva, 2010;Riva, Bacchetta, Baruffi, Rinaldi, & Molinari, 1999).…”

Untitled

“…In summary, VR provides a new human-computer interaction paradigm in which users are no longer simply external observers of images on a computer screen but are active participants within a computer-generated three-dimensional virtual world [6-8]: in the virtual environment (VE) the patient has the possibility of learning to manage a problematic situation related to his/her disturbance in a functionally relevant, ecologically valid experience [9,10]. …”

Editorial: Ebesity – E-Health for Obesity – New Technologies for the Treatment of Obesity In Clinical Psychology and Medicine

“…There is a significant interest in the employment of new technologies and devices in order to obtain better results in weightreduction programs: this literature has grown strongly over recent years (Riva et al, 2001, Riva et al, 2002, Simpson et al, 2002, Jeffery et al, 2003, Riva et al, 2003, Simpson et al, 2003, Castelnuovo et al, 2004, Goulis et al, 2004, Sherwood et al, 2006, Haugen et al, 2007, Joo and Kim, 2007, Wister et al, 2007, Kim and Kim, 2008, Krukowski et al, 2008, Morak et al, 2008, Schiel et al, 2008, Shaikh et al, 2008, McTigue et al, 2009, Park et al, 2009, Castelnuovo, 2010.…”