As true as it is false: Cognitive defusion guided by virtual reality
Giovambattista Presti, Concetta Messina, Marco Lombardo, Annalisa Oppo
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) is an effective treatment option for several psychological
disorders, whose effectiveness has been proved both in clinical studies, and meta-analyses, the most
effective results being in anxiety disorders. However, research on the efficacy of VRET in dealing
with covert behaviour or private events as thoughts, feelings, and physiological responses is still
lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a Virtual Reality (VR) mediated
defusion technique on distress and believability associated to a thought. The procedure involved eight
participants who entered a single-subject alternating treatment design (ATD), in which two treatments
[VR Defusion and Distraction] were alternated amongst participants. Results showed that both distress
(Cohen’s d = 1.82) and believability (Cohen’s d = 1.98) of problematic thoughts were reduced by the
VR defusion condition. Furthermore, defusion seemed to produce better outcomes than distraction.
In conclusion, the results suggest the potential use of VR defusion for the treatment of disturbing
thoughts. Future research should investigate the effectiveness of VR defusion on a clinical population
in order to integrate this technique into an Acceptance and Therapy Commitment (ACT) protocol.
Keywords
Defusion, Stimulus Control, Virtual Reality, Relational Frame Theory, Acceptance
and Commitment Therapy.
