Rovira, Aitor; Lambe, Sinead; Beckwith, Helen; Ahmed, Memoona; Hudson, Felicity; Haynes, Phoebe; Yu, Chun-Jou; Williams, Kira; Saidel, Simone; Iredale, Ellen; McBride, Sapphira; Waite, Felicity; Pan, Xueni and Freeman, Daniel. 2024. A randomized controlled experiment testing the use of virtual reality to trigger cigarette craving in people who smoke. Scientific Reports, 14, 19445. ISSN 2045-2322 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Automated delivery of therapy in virtual reality (VR) has the potential to be used for smoking cessation. Most obviously, it could be used to practise and establish alternative reactions to smoking cues. The first step in treatment development is to show that VR environments can trigger sufficient cravings in smokers. We evaluated a new VR public house outdoor scenario with 100 individuals who smoked daily. Participants were randomly assigned to the VR scenario with smoking cues or a neutral experience in VR. The VR experiences were presented in a standalone VR headset. Before and after VR, we collected self-reported craving scores for cigarettes and alcohol using the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire (TCQ) and visual analogue scales (VAS). Physiological data were also collected. Compared to the neutral condition, exposure to the smoking cues led to a large increase in craving for a cigarette (TCQ β= 11.44, p< 0.0001, Cohen’s d= 1.10) and also a moderate increase in craving for alcohol (β = 0.7, p = 0.017, d = 0.50). There were no significant physiological differences between the two conditions. These results provide good evidence that VR experiences can elicit strong craving for cigarettes. The programming can be part of developing a new VR cognitive therapy to help people reduce smoking.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-70113-2
Additional Information:	Funding: This work was funded by a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator award to DF (NIHR202385) and the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). SL was supported by an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship (NIHR301483). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. FW is funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Doctoral Fellowship (102176/B/13/Z).
Data Access Statement:	Deidentified data are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request and contract with the university.
Keywords:	Cigarette craving, Virtual reality
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Computing
Dates:	Date Event 13 August 2024 Accepted 21 August 2024 Published
Item ID:	37496
Date Deposited:	23 Aug 2024 08:51
Last Modified:	23 Aug 2024 08:51
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/37496

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