Translating Virtual Reality Cue Exposure Therapy for Binge Eating into a Real-World Setting: An Uncontrolled Pilot...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Virtual Reality Applications

Background:

• Binge-eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) present significant psychological and medical challenges.
• Current treatments like cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) may not suffice for all patients.
• The integration of virtual reality with cue-exposure therapy (VR-CET) is an emerging intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing VR-CET in a real-world outpatient eating disorder clinic.
• To evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of VR-CET for patients with BED or BN.

Main Methods:

• Adults with BED or BN receiving weekly VR-CET sessions were recruited from a university clinic.
• Treatment involved up to eight one-hour VR-CET sessions.
• Feasibility, acceptability, and binge-eating/purging episodes were assessed.

Main Results:

• High participant and therapist acceptability of VR-CET was reported.
• Intent-to-treat objective binge episodes (OBEs) significantly decreased from 3.3 to 0.9 per week.
• A 56% 7-day abstinence rate from OBEs was observed in completers, with 22% maintaining 28-day abstinence at follow-up.

Conclusions:

• VR-CET appears feasible and acceptable for real-world clinical settings.
• Preliminary data suggest VR-CET may be effective in reducing binge-eating and purging behaviors.
• Further research is needed to optimize treatment and address potential loss of gains during follow-up.