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NCT06166355: EOAN-VR-ABM
Improving the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa in Children Through Virtual Reality Body Exposure
NA trial testing Attentional Bias Modification Training in Anorexia Nervosa in 108 participants. Currently enrolling.
1 February 2026
Quick facts
| Lead sponsor | University of Barcelona |
|---|---|
| Phase | NA |
| Status | Recruiting now |
| Study type | INTERVENTIONAL |
| Allocation | randomized |
| Design | parallel |
| Masking | none |
| Primary purpose | treatment |
| Enrollment | 108 |
| Start date | 1 July 2024 |
| Primary completion | 1 February 2026 |
| Estimated completion | 30 March 2026 |
| Sites | 1 location across Spain |
Drugs / interventions tested
- Attentional Bias Modification Training
- VR-based body exposure
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Conditions studied
- Anorexia Nervosa — all drugs for Anorexia Nervosa →
Sponsor
University of Barcelona
Who can join
Under 14, any sex, with Anorexia Nervosa. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.
Sponsor's own description
The age of onset of anorexia nervosa has been progressively decreasing in recent years. Also, the prevalence rates of childhood anorexia in many countries have grown significantly. This increase was already observed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the confinements and the stress derived from them have caused this increase to accelerate. As in adolescent and adult patients, in childhood anorexia some of the core signs and symptoms are an extreme fear of gaining weight and avoidance of food. The consequences of the early-onset of anorexia can be very important since the maturation of the organism is more incomplete in children than in adolescents. Weight loss can have very severe consequences, since in children the percentage of body fat is lower. On the other hand, hormonal disorders derived from food deprivation also have very severe consequences for the development of different organs. General physical development and growth can be affected, with consequences such as not being able to reach normal height. The research carried out to date on the efficacy of treatments for childhood anorexia is very scarce. There are no specific treatment strategies or settings for children with anorexia, and little research has been done to tailor treatment for younger patients. Given the need to explore new treatments for anorexia nervosa specifically aimed at children, the objective of this project is to develop a program to carry out exposure to one's own body through virtual reality, gradually, with progressive increases in size until achieving a healthy weight. In the virtual exposure, patients will observe the image of an avatar in a mirror for the time necessary in each session to produce the reduction of the anxiety response. The avatars that will be developed for this purpose will have a physical constitution corresponding to children under 14 years of age, and physical proportions equivalent to those of each patient. The positive results obtained with a previous version of this treatment originally developed for adolescents and adults suggest that its adaptation to children can open new ways for exploring effective treatments for childhood anorexia.
Publications & conference data
No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial.
Verify or expand the search:
- PubMed search for NCT06166355
- Europe PMC full search
- ASCO Meeting Library
- ESMO Meeting Library
- bioRxiv preprints
- medRxiv preprints
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Related trials
Other trials of Attentional Bias Modification Training
Trials testing the same drug.
- NCT04786951 — Virtual Reality-Based Attention Bias Modification Training for Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa · NA · completed
Other recruiting trials for Anorexia Nervosa
Currently open trials in the same condition.
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- NCT07188155 — Adapting Exposure for Adolescent AN · NA · recruiting
- NCT07143981 — The Fecal Microbiome Transplant (FMT) Study for Anorexia Nervosa · recruiting
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Other University of Barcelona trials
Trials by the same sponsor.
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- NCT06729697 — Pharmaceutical Literacy and Quality of Life in Spanish Population. · enrolling by invitation
- NCT06478160 — Closed-blood Sampling Devices in the Adult Critically Ill Patient · NA · recruiting
- NCT07172490 — Interdisciplinary Program to Improve Lifestyle in Chronic Pathology: Alt Pirineu Aran in Fit (APA-FIT) · NA · completed
Verify against primary sources
- ClinicalTrials.gov — authoritative US registry record
- WHO ICTRP — international registry index
- EU Clinical Trials Register
- Sponsor press releases (Google)
- Trial protocol + status: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06166355 (US National Library of Medicine, public domain)
- Drug + disease cross-links: matched in real time against Drug Landscape's normalised drug + company + condition tables
- Sponsor: as reported to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Barcelona
- Last refreshed: 27 March 2025
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