Objective: This paper aims to examine the efficacy of virtual reality (VR)-enhanced cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in the treatment of binge-purging type eating disorders compared to CBT.
Method: Four electronic literature databases were searched to retrieve eligible randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was used to select eligible studies. Meta-analyses of extracted data were then conducted by RevMan 5.3 software.
Results: Six RCTs totalling 297 participants were included. Results showed significantly larger decreases in the frequency of binges in participants who underwent VR-enhanced CBT compared to CBT. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the change in body mass index or frequency of purges. Additionally, there were significantly larger decreases in situation-induced body dissatisfaction in participants who underwent VR-enhanced CBT compared to CBT, but no significant difference in improvement of overall body satisfaction.
Conclusion: VR-enhanced CBT shows greater efficacy than CBT in reducing situation-induced body dissatisfaction and frequency of binges. Our results highlight the potential of VR in helping patients develop coping strategies to food/situational triggers. Future RCTs may benefit from recruiting more participants to reduce the impact of drop-outs on outcome data and blinding post-intervention assessors to reduce risk of bias.
Keywords: binge eating disorder; bulimia nervosa; cognitive behavioural therapy; feeding and eating disorders; virtual reality.
© 2020 Eating Disorders Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.