Eating Disorders
and virtual reality
Virtual Reality (VR) is a beneficial tool for the treatment of Eating Disorders, also known as Eating Behavior Disorders (EBD), especially Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Nervous Anorexia (AN) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED).
Several studies demonstrate the effectiveness of VR as an exposure therapy to reduce the desire or impulse towards food and to normalize eating patterns, as well as to help patients to be aware of their distortion of their own body image, to confront and correct such distortion, to get a more realistic perception and to reduce dissatisfaction with one’s own body (Gutiérrez-Maldonado et al., 2016; Lafond, Riva, Gutierrez-Maldonado, & Wiederhold, 2016; Lozano et al, 2002; Marco, Perpiñá & Botella, 2013; Manzoni et al, 2013; Manzoni et al, 2016; Perpiñá, Botella & Baños, 2003; Perpiñá et al., 2013; Pla-Sanjuanelo et al., 2015; Riva, 2011: Riva et al, 1999; Wiederhold, Riva, & GutiérrezMaldonado, 2016).