Department of Adult Psychiatry, Conception University Hospital, Marseille, France.
Equipe Imothep, Institut Fresnel, UMR 7249, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Ecole Centrale Marseille, Marseille, France.
Psychol Med. 2023 Aug;53(11):5070-5080. doi: 10.1017/S0033291722002070. Epub 2022 Aug 4.
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.
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.
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.
Improvement in technology and methodology for future research and applications is delineated.
虽然戒烟的干预措施已经取得成功，但预防吸烟复发的方案成功率有限。认知行为疗法（CBT）尤其受到高复发率的阻碍。由于复发可能是由于与吸烟有关的条件（例如与朋友在酒吧喝酒），虚拟现实线索暴露疗法（VRCE）可能是一种潜在的工具，可以生成模拟复发预防程序风险情况的 3D 交互环境。
为了评估 CBT 与 VRCE 的有效性，设计了一项涉及 100 名戒烟参与者的对照试验，所有必需的虚拟环境（VE）均使用廉价的图形引擎/游戏关卡编辑器创建。
结果证实了这些 VE 的沉浸式和诱发渴望的效果。结果表明，VRCE 组中更多的参与者没有经历吸烟复发，并且 VRCE 在减少渴望和降低尼古丁依赖方面至少与传统 CBT 一样有效。VRCE 组的辍学和复发率明显低于 CBT 组。除了情绪评分外，其他量表没有发现显著差异。
为未来的研究和应用勾勒出了改进技术和方法的方向。
