I-Corps: Treating Addiction with Virtual Reality

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide a new modality for delivering effective substance abuse interventions. This project involves a novel virtual-reality based intervention to be applied in substance abuse treatment. The team plans to investigate customer potential for a turnkey software intervention that can be integrated into the treatment of substance use disorders. This intervention may save lives and money by significantly reducing relapse rates.This I-Corps project explores how virtual reality may be an immediately available intervention to prevent relapse during periods of craving. Preliminary interviews suggest that virtual reality can regulate emotion for a period of hours or days after a brief 30-minute session. Substance abuse develops as a maladaptive response to strong negative emotions - if virtual reality can regulate emotion, it may serve as an alternative behavior that can be sought during potential moments of relapse. Prevention of relapse could combat the opioid epidemic and also help the millions of people who are addicted to other substances.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.