Virtual reality cue exposure therapy for tobacco relapse prevention : a comparative study with standard intervention

BACKGROUND: Successful interventions have been developed for smoking cessation although the success of smoking relapse prevention protocols has been limited. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in particular has been hampered by a high relapse rate. Because relapse can be due to conditions associated with tobacco consumption (such as drinking in bars with friends), virtual reality cue exposure therapy (VRCE) can be a potential tool to generate 3D interactive environments that simulate risk situations for relapse prevention procedures.

METHODS: To assess the effectiveness of VRCE with CBT, a comparative trial involving 100 smoking abstinent participants was designed with all required virtual environments (VE) created with an inexpensive graphic engine/game level editor.

RESULTS: Outcome measures confirmed the immersive and craving eliciting effect of these VEs. Results demonstrated that more participants in the VRCE group did not experience smoking relapse and that VRCE is at least as efficacious as traditional CBT in terms of craving reduction and decrease in nicotine dependence. Dropout and relapse rate in the VRCE group was noticeably lower than the CBT group. Aside from mood scores, no significant differences were found regarding the other scales.

CONCLUSION: The present clinical trial provides evidence that VRCE was effective in preventing smoking relapse. Improvement in technology and methodology for future research and applications is delineated.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:53

Enthalten in:

Psychological medicine - 53(2023), 11 vom: 07. Aug., Seite 5070-5080

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Malbos, Eric [VerfasserIn]
Borwell, Baptiste [VerfasserIn]
Einig-Iscain, Mélodie [VerfasserIn]
Korchia, Théo [VerfasserIn]
Cantalupi, Robin [VerfasserIn]
Boyer, Laurent [VerfasserIn]
Lancon, Christophe [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Cue exposure therapy
Game level editor
Journal Article
Tobacco relapse prevention
Virtual environments
Virtual reality

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 01.09.2023

Date Revised 13.12.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1017/S0033291722002070

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM344442861