Design of a Virtual Cocaine Consumption Scenario for Craving Study

Abstract

By providing any wanted situation without the risks associated to it, Virtual Reality (VR) bears a strong potential for Cue Exposure Therapy (CET) related to psychoactive substance use disorders (SUD), as it allows both exposing participants to a great variety of controlled stimuli and making them involved through a strong sense of presence.However, while Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) has already been used successfully in the treatment of several disorders (e.g. tobacco dependence, agoraphobia, social phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder), its effectiveness still needs to be demonstrated for the treatment of cocaine-related SUD. Most notably, its ability to induce craving must be evaluated.In this paper, we describe the design and development of a virtual environment made for the treatment of substance use disorder with cocaine users through CET. This environment is also presented in a video (https://vimeo.com/568320310).