Kicking the habit, virtually
By Emily Huhn

A smoker trying to quit walks into the midst of a party in full swing. Guests with drinks and cigarettes in hand already fill the room. It is only a matter of minutes before revelers eager to make small talk approach the new arrival with questions. As a courtesy, someone offers a cigarette. But this is no ordinary cigarette; in fact, it doesn’t even exist.

The whole scene is part of a newly developed virtual reality software program designed to help treat people addicted to nicotine. It is one of the first efforts to apply virtual reality to drug addiction treatment. Researchers are also attempting to expand the model to cocaine addiction by creating a virtual crack house. The hope is that virtual reality will provide an effective tool for a group of people notoriously hard to treat.

Addicts often experience a profound desire or craving for a drug when they come across cues associated with it, and this can lead to a relapse. Money commonly triggers cravings in cocaine users, as does coffee in cigarette smokers, but people, places, paraphernalia, and other objects can also act as cues. Accordingly, therapy is often based on exposure to drug cues that trigger cravings. The idea is that if an addict can work through their urges in a therapist’s office, this will help decrease cravings when they are confronted with cues in the real world.

Traditionally, therapists use role-playing within a doctor’s office or devices such as slides, videotapes, pictures, or objects to help desensitize addicts to drug cues. But some do not think this is the most effective therapeutic tool for patients. “Role-playing can be kind of goofy,” said Patrick Bordnick, assistant professor of social work at the University of Georgia, who has extensive experience working with cocaine addicts. “I can be a pretty convincing crack addict, but in the end they still know it is Dr. Bordnick.”

Virtual reality now offers a possible alternative. It first emerged in the medical community about a decade ago as a tool for treating phobias. The first controlled study, conducted in 1995 by Barbara Rothbaum, director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program at Emory University School of Medicine, focused on the fear of heights. During the study, she exposed subjects to virtual bridges, balconies and a glass hotel elevator that climbed 49 floors. Her results showed a decrease in stress and anxiety among those in the group treated with virtual reality and revealed...