Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health

Date Submitted: Sep 15, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 4, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 8, 2020

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Virtual Reality Behavioral Activation as an Intervention for Major Depressive Disorder: Case Report

Paul M, Bullock K, Bailenson J

Virtual Reality Behavioral Activation as an Intervention for Major Depressive Disorder: Case Report

JMIR Ment Health 2020;7(11):e24331

DOI: 10.2196/24331

PMID: 33031046

PMCID: 7641650

Case Report: Virtual Reality Behavioral Activation as an Intervention for Major Depressive Disorder

  • Margot Paul; 
  • Kim Bullock; 
  • Jeremy Bailenson

ABSTRACT

Background:

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a global problem with an increasing incidence and prevalence. There has additionally been an increase in depression due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Behavioral activation is considered an evidence-based treatment for MDD. However, there are many barriers that could hinder one’s ability to engage in behavioral activation, with COVID-19 “shelter-in-place” and social distancing orders being current and large impediments. Virtual reality has been successfully used to help treat a variety of mental health conditions, but it has not yet been used as a method of administering behavioral activation to a clinical population. Using virtual reality to engage in behavioral activation could eliminate barriers that pandemic precautions place and help decrease symptoms of depression that are especially exacerbated in these times.

Objective:

The following case report examines the feasibility, acceptability, and tolerability of virtual reality behavioral activation for an adult with MDD during a global pandemic. This participant was part of a larger pilot study and the case serves as a description of the VR intervention.

Methods:

The participant engaged in a weekly 50-minute psychotherapy Zoom session for four weeks, in which a modified behavioral activation protocol was administered using a virtual reality headset. Data on mood ratings, homework compliance, and headset use were obtained from the headset. Acceptability, tolerability, and depression symptoms were obtained using self-report rating scales.

Results:

The intervention was feasible, acceptable, and tolerable, as reported by this participant. The participant’s depressive symptoms decreased by five-points on the PHQ-9 over a month, with a beginning score of a 10 (moderate depression) and a final score of a 5 (mild depression).

Conclusions:

The implications of these findings for future research are discussed. Clinical Trial: Identifiers: NCT04268316 Unique Protocol ID: 53483 URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04268316


 Citation

Please cite as:

Paul M, Bullock K, Bailenson J

Virtual Reality Behavioral Activation as an Intervention for Major Depressive Disorder: Case Report

JMIR Ment Health 2020;7(11):e24331

DOI: 10.2196/24331

PMID: 33031046

PMCID: 7641650

Download PDF


Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.