Kicking the habit, virtually
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...physiologic data such as heart rate and sweat gland activity as well as base-line information on craving and mood.

From there, the program randomly sends you to one of two rooms. One room contains a table laid out with bottles of beer, packs of cigarettes and a burning cigarette resting in an ashtray. Before the session begins, a therapist can program the specific brand of cigarette you use so a familiar pack appears on the table. On a side table along the wall is a large pot of coffee. On the way out there is a mini bar with the sound of ice clinking in glasses and bottles of alcohol arranged neatly on the shelves. Bordnick and Graap hope to add olfactory cues to accompany the images you see as you move through the rooms. The goal is to have the smell of cigarette smoke waft towards you as you walk past the table, followed by the smell of coffee brewing as you approach the far wall.

The other room contains a virtual party with three groups of people in a living room holding beer bottles and cigarettes and talking. Upon entering, the first group approaches you, asking questions and making small talk. Others discuss smoking and offer cigarettes.

Ultimately, you’ll experience all three environments — the neutral room, the inanimate objects room and the virtual party. After a stay in each room, your physiological responses are monitored and you again rate your craving to smoke by answering a series of questions.

During the study, Bordnick had people reaching for packs of virtual cigarettes while using the program. This convinced him that the virtual environment had the potential to elicit cravings. It turns out he was right. The final results show that you can induce nicotine craving in a virtual environment. The study is currently in press at the Addictive Behaviors journal.

Now that their research has revealed that the program can elicit cravings, Bordnick and Graap hope to design a program that can reliably induce cravings. From there, the program could also be used to test pharmaceuticals developed to reduce cravings for cigarettes.

After her success with virtual reality and phobias, Rothbaum also saw the potential of using the technique for addictions. Last summer, she received a separate grant with Virtually Better to test...