In the field of ED virtual reality is applied to the treatment of body image disturbance, which is one of the most important features of Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa. With this objective we developed the Virtualbody software, which can be used for the treatment as well as for the evaluation.

Body image is the mental representation of our body, it is the way we see or think about our bodies and how we believe others see us; it is a relevant factor in the initiation, maintenance and subsequent relapses that occur in these disorders.

The aim of the software is to allow the patient eat virtually certain type of food in order to let them see what happens then (whether they are fattening or not), learn that the weight is relative and it depends on everyone’s constitution, age and body shape, make them can model and represent their body image, and then contrast it with their real body. Furthermore it might also represent how they would like to be, how others see them, what would it look like when they are at healthy weight, etc.

The efficacy of the software for the treatment of body image disturbance has already been proved, compared to traditional treatment (Perpiñá, Botella, Baños, Marco Alcaraz, Quero, 1999; Perpiñá, Botella, Baños, 2003). Group patients who receive treatment in VR showed significantly greater improvement in general psychopathology, and more specifically in psychopathology of eating disorders and body image.