Immersive virtual environments in cue exposure.

Kuntze MF; Stoermer R; Mager R; Roessler A; Mueller-Spahn F; Bullinger AH

doi:10.1089/109493101750527051

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Journal article

Immersive virtual environments in cue exposure.

Kuntze MF Department of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Basel, Switzerland. marcus.kuntze@pukbasel.ch
Stoermer R
Mager R
Roessler A
Mueller-Spahn F
Bullinger AH

2001-11-16

Published in:

Cyberpsychology & behavior : the impact of the Internet, multimedia and virtual reality on behavior and society. - 2001

English Cue reactivity to drug-related stimuli is a frequently observed phenomenon in drug addiction. Cue reactivity refers to a classical conditioned response pattern that occurs when an addicted subject is exposed to drug-related stimuli. This response consists of physiological and cognitive reactions. Craving, a subjective desire to use the drug of choice, is believed to play an important role in the occurrence of relapse in the natural setting. Besides craving, other subjective cue-elicited reactions have been reported, including withdrawal symptoms, drug-agonistic effects, and mood swings. Physiological reactions that have been investigated include skin conductance, heart rate, salivation, and body temperature. Conditioned reactivity to cues is an important factor in addiction to alcohol, nicotine, opiates, and cocaine. Cue exposure treatment (CET) refers to a manualized, repeated exposure to drug-related cues, aimed at the reduction of cue reactivity by extinction. In CET, different stimuli are presented, for example, slides, video tapes, pictures, or paraphernalia in nonrealistic, experimental settings. Most often assessments consist in subjective ratings by craving scales. Our pilot study will show that immersive virtual reality (IVR) is as good or even better in eliciting subjective and physiological craving symptoms as classical devices.

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