The strong urge to snort cocaine could be better controlled thanks to virtual reality.
- In France, cocaine use has exploded across the country in recent years.
- Highly addictive, cocaine can quickly trigger a dependency with serious health and social consequences.
- To help people who have fallen into this trap, French researcher Thomas Lehoux conducted a study on virtual reality.
When trying to wean yourself off an addiction, you often have to deal with almost irrepressible urges to consume, called “craving” by doctors specializing in these disorders.
“The urge to use cocaine can be automatically triggered in everyday contexts such as your place on the couch, for example, where you usually have a beer with your friends,” he says.explains Thomas Lehoux, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Strasbourg. “We therefore immediately believed in the clinical potential of virtual reality to control cravings, since this technology allows us to simulate and control specific contexts,” he continues.
Virtual reality tested on 11 people addicted to cocaine
For his studythe researcher and his team recruited 11 dependent adults who had used cocaine in the 30 days preceding the start of the experiment. These participants all came from the same treatment center located in Strasbourg, and were selected in order to exclude in particular those suffering from mental disorders.
The virtual reality exposure was carried out using Meta Quest 2 headsets. Participants watched three consecutive 10-minute sessions: the first recreated a neutral environment, the second an environment evoking cocaine and the third allowed them to follow a relaxation method using breathing.
Cocaine-like virtual reality increases cravings
The researchers then found that exposure to cocaine in virtual reality significantly increased participants’ cravings for cocaine. This craving was significantly stronger than in the neutral environment, indicating that virtual reality can effectively simulate scenarios that trigger cravings.
After the relaxation session, participants reported a significant decrease in their drug cravings and negative emotions.
“Following this study, our project is to allow patients to be exposed via virtual reality to situations strongly linked to cocaine consumption and to teach them through this means to manage craving in real life,” concludes Thomas Lehoux.
Cocaine consumption increases in France
In France, cocaine use has exploded in recent years across the country.Over the past two decades, the number of cocaine users has continued to increase: 1.6% of 18-64 year-olds were affected in 2017 compared to 0.3% in 2000. It is mainly among adults from the 1970 to 1990 generations that the drug has taken hold.noted OFDT in its latest report on the matter.