Cue-Elicited Anxiety and Alcohol Craving as Indicators of the Validity of ALCO-VR Software: A Virtual Reality Study
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2019-09-04T07:59:07Z
dc.date.available
2019-09-04T07:59:07Z
dc.date.issued
2019-08-02
dc.identifier.uri
dc.description.abstract
This study is part of a larger project aiming to develop a virtual reality (VR) software to be implemented as a clinical tool for patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD). The study is based on previous research in which we identified factors that elicit craving for alcohol in a sample of AUD patients, and which led to the development of a virtual reality software to be used in cue exposure treatments of alcohol use disorder (ALCO-VR). The main objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of ALCO-VR to elicit cue-induced craving and anxiety responses among social drinkers (SD) and AUD patients. Our secondary objective was to explore which responses (cue-induced craving or anxiety) can best differentiate between AUD patients and the SD group. Method: Twenty-seven individuals (13 AUD patients and 14 SD) participated in this study after giving written informed consent. Their anxiety and alcohol craving levels were measured by different instruments at different stages of the procedure. The VR equipment consisted of Oculus Rift technology, and the software consisted of the ALCO-VR platform. Results: Our data indicate that the ALCO-VR software can elicit responses of anxiety and alcohol craving, especially in the group of AUD patients. The cue-induced anxiety response differentiated AUD patients and the SD group better than the cue-induced craving response. Conclusions: The general interest in applying new technologies to the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders has led to the development of immersive real-life simulations based on the advantages of VR technology. Our study concluded that the ALCO-VR software can elicit anxiety and craving responses and that cue-induced anxiety responses can distinguish between AUD and SD groups better than cue-induced craving. The data on craving and anxiety were assessed consistently by different instruments. In addition, we consider that ALCO-VR is able to ecologically assess cue-induced anxiety and alcohol craving levels during exposure to VR alcohol-related environment
dc.description.sponsorship
This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality,
Delegation of the Government for the National Plan on Drugs (FEDER/UE/Project 2016I078: “ALCO-VR: Virtual Reality-based protocol for the treatment of patients diagnosed with severe alcohol use disorder”). The study also received support from AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya, 2017SGR1693
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)
dc.relation.isformatof
Reproducció digital del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8081153
dc.relation.ispartof
Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2019, vol. 8, núm. 8, p. 1153
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Articles publicats (EUSES)
dc.rights
Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.uri
dc.subject
dc.title
Cue-Elicited Anxiety and Alcohol Craving as Indicators of the Validity of ALCO-VR Software: A Virtual Reality Study
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.type.peerreviewed
peer-reviewed
dc.identifier.eissn
2077-0383