Study Protocol for a Randomized-Controlled Study Investigating Cue-Exposure in Virtual Reality: Challenges and Chances

Aim: Cue-exposure therapy (CET) is an intervention for relapse prevention in substance use disorders aiming at the habituation of the automatized response to substance related cues (cue-reactivity). Effectiveness of CET is moderate; possibilities to overcome some limitations through virtual reality (CR) are discussed. This paper summarizes the development of a study protocol for a VR-CET study, including a pilot study with n=17 smokers who rated the relapse probability of high-risk relapse situations. The paper closes with a discussion of obstacles and per-spectives in the field of VR-CET. Method: The study protocol of a randomized-controlled trial using these scenarios is presented. Conclusions: VR-CET allows to overcome practical limitations of CET in relapse prevention in smokers. The need of and possibilities to individualize VR-CET scenarios and their boundaries are discussed. A validation of the VR-CET results is required to improve the practical VR-CET application in re-lapse prevention in substance use disorders.