Virtual Reality Interventions to Help Manage Cocaine Craving
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A randomised feasibility trial of VR-enhanced cue exposure therapy versus neutral VR exposure for cocaine use disorder, with wearable monitoring and JITA-EMA
IRAS ID
369564
Contact name
Paolo Deluca
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study is the next step in a staged development programme funded by the NIHR i4i Addiction mission. It builds on Study 1 “Understanding Cocaine Craving and Use in Environmental Settings” (https://osf.io/djt2y/overview) and Study 2 “Virtual Reality-enhanced Cue Exposure Therapy development and laboratory testing” (https://osf.io/pw54k/overview ). Study 1 established the feasibility of continuous wearable monitoring and smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment in people receiving treatment for cocaine use, and demonstrated that craving episodes can be identified through physiological changes. Study 2 developed and refined acceptable VR cocaine-cue scenarios capable of eliciting craving in a controlled setting.
This study integrates VR-Cue Exposure Therapy with continuous wearable monitoring and almost in real-time Ecological Momentary Assessment in a proof-of-concept randomised controlled trial to assess feasibility, acceptability, safety and deliverability, and to generate preliminary estimates of change in cue reactivity and cocaine use outcomes to inform the design of a definitive efficacy trial.
This research has the potential to be a novel treatment approach for cocaine use and other substance use disorders. The potential of VR to deliver Cue Exposure Therapy has been shown with alcohol and nicotine (cigarettes) but this work hopes to expand this understanding to substance use, specifically powder and crack cocaine.
Adults will be eligible if they are participating in an included drug service, attending for treatment and their primary substance of use is cocaine (powder or crack) and are willing and able to provide consent. Participants will be randomised to VR-Cocaine or VR-relax and complete up to six VR sessions, and will be followed up for 8 weeks post randomisation.
There is also a service provider component to this. Staff will be interviewed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing VR-enhanced CET in routine drug and alcohol services and to inform future scale-up. This will be one interview conducted on MSTeams.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/LO/0456
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jun 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion