A Virtual Reality Game to Assess OCD Symptoms

Abstract

Background: Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are often underreported by patients and mainly triggered in the patients private domain, making it harder for clinicians to recognize OCD. Virtual reality (VR) can be used to assess OCD symptoms in the clinician's office. We developed a VR game in order to provoke subjective and physiological OCD symptoms. We hypothesize that (1) the VR game provokes more OCD symptoms in patients compared to healthy controls, (2) performing virtual compulsions leads to a reduction in emotional responses in OCD patients and that (3) the severity of VR game provoked symptoms correlates with severity of OCD symptoms. Methods: Participants played the VR game on a laptop while physiological measures were recorded simultaneously. We measured emotional responses, virtual compulsions and physiological arousal in response to our VR game in 26 OCD patients and 26 healthy controls. We determined correlations between emotional responses, virtual compulsions and OCD severity. Results: We found higher levels of VR-provoked anxiety (U = 179.5, p = 0.004) and virtual compulsions in OCD patients compared to healthy controls (p = 0.001). There was a significant reduction in emotional responses after performing virtual compulsions in the OCD patients. The emotional responses and virtual compulsions did not correlate significantly with Y-BOCS scores. A baseline difference between patients and healthy controls was found in heart rate variability (HRV), but no significant change in HRV, heartrate and skin conductance was found during the VR game Conclusions: Our study clearly shows our OCD VR game is capable of provoking more anxiety and virtual compulsions in patients with OCD compared to healthy controls. Providing a direct patient-rated measurement in the clinicians room, the VR game could help in assessing core OCD symptoms and recognizing OCD. Clinical Trial Registry Number: Netherlands Trial Register NTR5935.

Keywords: assessment; diagnosis; game; obsessive-compulsive disorder; virtual reality.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Copyright © 2021 van Bennekom, de Koning, Gevonden, Kasanmoentalib and Denys.

Figures

Figure 1

(A) 3D-map of house indicating OCD-related items (figure reprinted with permission from Cyberpsychology, behavior & social networking, publisher: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., New Rochelle, NY) 1, locking gate start; 2, locking front door start; 3, switching off television; 4, extinguishing candle; 5, organizing pencils; 6, closing window; 7, cleaning breakfast table; 8, putting off gas; 9, organizing cans; 10, cleaning sink; 11, hand washing after toilet; 12, switching off flat iron; 13, organizing hazardous substances; 14, locking front door end; and 15, locking gate end. (B) Screenshots from the VR game (figure reprinted with permission from Cyberpsychology, behavior & social networking, publisher: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., New Rochelle, NY).

Figure 2

Emotional responses (mean and SE) compared to baseline during VR game.

Figure 3

Mean heart rate and SE per item.