Many people suffer from fear of contamination. People with high fear of contamination experience complaints that can interfere with their relationships, prevent them from going to their favourite holiday destinations, or eat out. If fear of contamination is left untreated, it can become worse or even chronic. It also has a serious impact on well-being. For many people, regular treatment is difficult due to its high costs, time constraints, or unavailability of mental health care.

Our goal is to increase access to effective mental health care for individuals with fear of contamination in a scalable and cost-effective way. We are developing and evaluating ZeroOCD, an innovative augmented reality (AR) app based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This app can be downloaded to a smartphone and allows the user to learn to cope with their fear of contamination symptoms in AR with minimal support by a therapist. It contains 9 modules explaining different techniques to learn to deal with fear and reduce it. Additionally, in includes AR exposure exercises that help the user face their fears, such as fear of diseases, bacteria, dirt or toxic substances.

The app was developed based on interviews with both potential users and therapists treating individuals with fear of contamination. We are now testing its user-friendliness and the feasibility of using the app with minimal therapist support in a feasibility study. Furthermore, we are comparing its (cost-)effectiveness, when delivered with 3 videoconferencing sessions with a therapist, to 9 videoconferencing CBT sessions, and a waitlist control condition among 183 participants in four different countries. Besides data collection in the Netherlands, we are collaborating with the University of Bern (Switzerland), Stockholm University (Sweden), and Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Belgium).

TEAM

• Dr. Tara Donker
• Marketa Ciharova
• Prof. dr. Chris van Klaveren
• Dr. Ilja Cornelisz
• Sophia Trofimova