Cue-Elicited Anxiety and Alcohol Craving as Indicators of the Validity of ALCO-VR Software: A Virtual Reality Study.

Alexandra Ghiţă,Lidia Teixidor,Silvia Mondon,Bruno Porras-García,Marta Ferrer-García,Olga Hernández-Serrano,Lluisa Ortega,Miquel Monras,Yolanda Fernández-Ruiz,José Gutiérrez-Maldonado,Antoni Gual

doi:10.3390/jcm8081153

Abstract

Background: 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 environments.

Highlights

Alcohol misuse is considered to be a serious condition with important negative consequences at a personal and societal level [1,2,3,4]
“ALCO-virtual reality (VR)” software was developed based on the results of a previous study [49], in which we identified factors that contribute to the elicitation of alcohol craving in a sample of patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD)
We propose that larger samples should be used and that the effectiveness of the ALCO-VR software to differentiate between patients with long-term versus short-term abstinence period in terms of alcohol craving and anxiety should be tested

Summary

Introduction

Alcohol misuse is considered to be a serious condition with important negative consequences at a personal and societal level [1,2,3,4]. 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). 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. Results: Our data indicate that the ALCO-VR software can elicit responses of anxiety and alcohol craving, especially in the group of AUD patients. 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. We consider that ALCO-VR is able to ecologically assess cue-induced anxiety and alcohol craving levels during exposure to VR alcohol-related environments

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion