Use of Virtual Reality for Rehabilitation of Drug Addiction
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Inci Derya YUCEL, Assoc. Prof. Gorkem YARARBAS, Prof. Zeki YUNCU, Mine PAZARCIKCI, , Murat KALKAN, Dr. Bahar AYDIN, Oana Andreea Manolache
1. Ministry of Justice Izmir Probation Directorate, Izmir/Turkey
2. Ege University, Institute on Drug Abuse Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science, Izmir/Turkey
3. Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir/Turkey
4. European Strategies Consulting, Bucharest/Romania
Objective: The aim of this review is to investigate applications of virtual reality technology on substance/drug addiction rehabilitation and to evaluate its results as good and best practices of methodologies
Method: A comprehensive literature review was conducted at the Science of Direct, Pubmed and Google Scholar. The search criteria were “virtual reality” “exposure therapy” “substance use” “drug” “addiction” keywords. Studies that were not written in English were not included in the review.
Discussion: Seven studies were reached. Publications which have been researched for this review cover the studies conducted between 2001-2010. The substances included in the studies were cannabis, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
Conclusion: Although use of virtual reality in treatment and rehabilitation of substance use disorders is an open area to improvement, there is a need for studies on drug addiction rehabilitation by using virtual reality technology.
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