Virtual Reality in the Assessment and Treatment of Weight-Related Disorders

Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2016 Feb;19(2):67-73. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2016.0012.

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has, for the past two decades, proven to be a useful adjunctive tool for both assessment and treatment of patients with eating disorders and obesity. VR allows an individual to enter scenarios that simulate real-life situations and to encounter food cues known to trigger his/her disordered eating behavior. As well, VR enables three-dimensional figures of the patient's body to be presented, helping him/her to reach an awareness of body image distortion and then providing the opportunity to confront and correct distortions, resulting in a more realistic body image and a decrease in body image dissatisfaction. In this paper, we describe seminal studies in this research area.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Body Image / psychology
  • Cues
  • Emotions
  • Feeding Behavior / psychology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / diagnosis
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / therapy*
  • Female
  • Food
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy / methods*