NCT03773549

A Virtual Reality Study of Cognitive Biases in Body Dysmorphic Disorder

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 58 (actual)
• Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: —

Summary

Previous research shows that individuals with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) misinterpret ambiguous social information in a negative and threatening manner. These erroneous threat appraisals are thought to maintain disorder symptomatology and psychosocial impairment by reinforcing individuals' distorted self-image and ideas of social undesirability. Thus, maladaptive interpretation biases represent an important treatment target for this population; however, existing bias assessments and modification protocols are limited by the hypothetical and distal nature of scenarios and do not capture momentary experiential threat processes. The proposed study seeks to test virtual reality (VR) technology as a novel, in vivo means of eliciting, identifying, and measuring threat interpretation biases in a clinical sample to better understand the fear/threat structure activated during social interactions in BDD. Findings have the potential to enhance our understanding of disorder maintenance and identify more nuanced treatment targets. This study represents a critical first step in the long-term goal of harnessing VR gaming technology to supercharge existing treatment approaches for this debilitating illness.

Conditions

• Body Dysmorphic Disorders
• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Virtual reality experience	Expose all participants (healthy and control) to virtual reality videos while collecting reactivity and self-report outcome measures.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-03-01
• Primary completion: 2019-09-20
• Completion: 2019-09-20
• First posted: 2018-12-12
• Last updated: 2019-09-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States