Popular in psychological and psychiatric circles.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Virtual reality could help treat alcoholism, a recent study from South Korea has suggested.
The findings, published in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, come from a small study of just 10 patients, but researchers said they are optimistic about the potential application of virtual reality as a therapy for alcohol use disorders, according to Science Daily.
“This technology is already popular in the fields of psychology and psychiatry,” said senior researcher Doug Hyun Han, M.D., Ph.D., of Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul, Korea.
For the study, Reuters reported participants first had to undergo week-long detox program, which was followed by virtual reality sessions using a 3D-television screen, twice a week for five weeks. During each session, the participants cycled through three virtual realities.
One scenario was meant to relax them. The second was meant to trigger alcohol cravings in a situation where other people were drinking, while the last was meant to make drinking seem unpleasant, by transporting participants to a room where people were getting sick from alcohol.
Researchers then found that areas of the brain theorized to be sensitive to alcohol showed changes are repeated exposure to the three different virtual realities.
According to Han, the therapy is a promising approach to treating alcohol dependence because it puts patients in situations similar to real life and requires their active participation.
However, Dr. Bernard Le Foll, head of the Alcohol Research and Treatment Clinic, Addiction Medicine Services, Ambulatory Care and Structured Treatments at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada, informed Reuters that much more work needs to be done to determine whether virtual reality will become a staple of alcohol disorder treatment in the future.
“Although this pilot study seems to indicate that virtual reality may produce some changes in brain metabolism, this is not yet studied as a treatment approach,” Le Foll stated.