Using Virtual Reality in the Inference-Based Treatment of Compulsive Hoarding.

Marie-Eve St-Pierre-Delorme,Kieron O’Connor

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2016.00149

Abstract

The present study evaluated the efficacy of adding a virtual reality (VR) component to the treatment of compulsive hoarding (CH), following inference-based therapy (IBT). Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. Seven participants received the experimental and seven received the control condition. Five sessions of 1 h were administered weekly. A significant difference indicated that the level of clutter in the bedroom tended to diminish more in the experimental group as compared to the control group F(2,24) = 2.28, p = 0.10. In addition, the results demonstrated that both groups were immersed and present in the environment. The results on posttreatment measures of CH (Saving Inventory revised, Saving Cognition Inventory and Clutter Image Rating scale) demonstrate the efficacy of IBT in terms of symptom reduction. Overall, these results suggest that the creation of a virtual environment may be effective in the treatment of CH by helping the compulsive hoarders take action over their clutter.

Highlights

Though classified in DSM-V as a distinct disorder, compulsive hoarding (CH) was long considered a subtype of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)
There were no interactions observed for the other rooms depicted in the Clutter Image Rating (CIR), the kitchen F(2,24) = 0.16, p = 0.85 and the living room F(2,24) = 0.90, p = 0.42
These results confirm the hypothesis that non-immersive virtual environments allow for the creation of a feeling of presence and immersion, which can contribute to the eliciting of emotions, when using the virtual environment

Summary

Introduction

Though classified in DSM-V as a distinct disorder, compulsive hoarding (CH) was long considered a subtype of OCD. New in DSM-V is that OCD is no longer considered an anxiety disorder. The majority of studies investigating CH and OCD were conducted when CH was still considered as anxiety disorder. Studies have found that VR is effective for the treatment of panic disorder [3], social phobia [4], obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) [5, 6], post-traumatic stress disorder [7, 8], specific phobia [9, 10], generalized anxiety disorder [11], and eating disorders [12]. No study has yet investigated the treatment of CH with VR

Objectives

Results

Conclusion