14 DAY TRIAL // After a lifetime of smoking, or even after a few years, kicking the habit is not an easy task. Temptations to light a cigarette “one last time” arise every day, and those who are trying to quit go through a very tough time until they break loose from the influence. In order to encourage more people to take on this rough path, and shake their addictions, scientists have recently developed a new computer game, which makes use of virtual reality to help them stop smoking, Technology Review informs.
In a study published in the latest issue of the scientific journal CyberPsychology and Behavior, experts from the University of Quebec, in Canada, reveal that participants in trials of the new game registered much better odds of kicking the habit than the average person trying to quit. This is not the first time virtual reality is being used to treat a condition. Previous studies have focused on using it to treat symptoms associated with the phantom limb syndrome, arachnophobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as to quench the pain sensation experienced by burn victims.
In the experiments, which lasted for three months, 91 participants were asked to play a virtual game. A group of volunteers was assigned to playing a game in which it had to grab and crush cigarettes, while the other group had to find and grasp floating spheres. Test subjects made use of a virtual arm, which was controlled via a wireless game pad. After the test time ended, an exhale test revealed lower carbon-monoxide levels in 15 percent of the people that played the cigarette-crushing game. For the other group, the reduction rate was just of two percent, the experts report.
The participants in the first group also reported that, in addition to smoking less, they also experienced a lower level of nicotine craving, as compared to before playing the game. According to the researchers, the change in perception may be owed to the fact that participants begin to feel more confident about their ability to quit the habit, if they constantly overcome it, at least in a virtual environment. Additionally, crushing a cigarette in VR may equal a small victory in the minds of smokers, the scientists conclude.