Body Image and Virtual Reality in Eating Disorders: Is Exposure to Virtual Reality More Effective than the Classical Body Image Treatment?

Body image (BI) disturbances are considered to be central in eating disorders (ED) psychopathology. There are few studies focused on the treatment of BI disturbances in ED, and most of them have used "traditional methods." The purpose of the present study was to probe the effectiveness of one specific component in the assessment and treatment of BI in ED by means of virtual reality (VR). Two treatment conditions were applied: (a) The Standard Body Image Treatment Condition (SBIT) and (b) the VR Condition. Thirteen eating disordered patients were randomly assigned to one of those conditions. No differences between both conditions were found in general ED measures, but patients treated in the VR condition showed a greater significant improvement in specific BI measures. These results suggest that BI treatment with VR could be more targeted to its disturbances. than traditional techniques are.