Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the current first-line psychological treatment for Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, substantial inter-individual variability exists in treatment outcomes, including inadequate symptom improvements, and notable refusal and attrition rates. These are driven, in part, by impracticalities in simulating intrusive thoughts within clinical settings. Virtual reality (VR) offers the potential of overcoming these limitations in a manner that allows for finely controlled anxiety-provoking scenarios to be created within supportive clinical settings. To validate the potential of VR for treating contamination-based OCD, 22 patients undertook a VR ERP session and a matched session of the current gold-standard of in vivo ERP. In VR, patients were immersed within a contamination environment that permitted flexible delivery of customisable, graded exposure tasks. The VR environment utilised HTC Vive hardware, to allow for patients to both interact with, and physically move through the environment. Subjective and objective measures of distress were recorded, including heart and respiration rates. These measures indicate virtual and in vivo ERP sessions provoke consistent anxiety profiles across an exposure hierarchy. Virtual exposure was advantageous for engagement and adherence to tasks, and the therapeutic alliance was upheld. VR is a promising mechanism for ERP in contamination OCD.

暴露和反应预防（ERP）是当前对强迫症（OCD）的一线心理治疗。但是，治疗结果中存在很大的个体差异，包括症状改善不足，拒绝率和损耗率显着。这些在某种程度上是由在临床环境中模拟侵入性想法的不切实际性驱动的。虚拟现实（VR）提供了克服这些局限性的潜力，该方式允许在支持性临床环境中创建精细控制的引发焦虑的场景。为了验证VR在治疗基于污染的OCD方面的潜力，有22位患者进行了VR ERP会议和与之相对应的当前体内金标准会议。ERP。在VR中，患者沉浸在污染环境中，该环境允许灵活地执行可自定义的分级曝光任务。VR环境利用HTC Vive硬件，使患者既可以与环境交互又可以在环境中移动。记录主观和客观上的困扰程度，包括心脏和呼吸频率。这些措施表明，虚拟的和体内的ERP会话在整个暴露层次上引起了一致的焦虑状况。虚拟接触有利于参与和坚持执行任务，维持治疗联盟。VR是一种用于污染OCD中ERP的有前途的机制。