Chen Kelly, Barnes-Horowitz Nora, Treanor Michael, Sun Michael, Young Katherine S, Craske Michelle G
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jan 7;11:613617. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613617. eCollection 2020.
Anhedonia is a risk factor for suicide and poor treatment response in depressed individuals. Most evidence-based psychological therapies target symptoms of heightened negative affect (e.g., negative inferential style) instead of deficits in positive affect (e.g., attenuated reward response) and typically show little benefit for anhedonia. Viewing positive scenes through virtual reality (VR) has been shown to increase positive affect and holds great promise for addressing anhedonic symptoms. In this pilot study, six participants with clinically significant depression completed 13 sessions of exposure to positive scenes in a controlled VR environment. Significant decreases were found in self-reported anhedonia, depression, anxiety, and impairments in functioning from baseline to 1-month follow-up. Negative affect decreased over all 13 sessions, and positive affect increased over sessions 8-13. Results suggest that positive experiences in VR may be a novel avenue for the treatment of anhedonia in depressed individuals.
快感缺乏是抑郁症患者自杀和治疗反应不佳的一个风险因素。大多数循证心理疗法针对的是消极情绪增强的症状（如消极推理风格），而非积极情绪的缺陷（如奖赏反应减弱），并且通常对快感缺乏几乎没有益处。通过虚拟现实（VR）观看积极场景已被证明可增加积极情绪，并在解决快感缺乏症状方面具有巨大潜力。在这项试点研究中，六名患有临床显著抑郁症的参与者在可控的VR环境中完成了13次接触积极场景的疗程。从基线到1个月随访期间，自我报告的快感缺乏、抑郁、焦虑及功能损害均显著降低。消极情绪在全部13个疗程中均有所下降，而积极情绪在第8至13个疗程中有所增加。结果表明，VR中的积极体验可能是治疗抑郁症患者快感缺乏的一条新途径。
