Enhancing Prospective Thinking in Early Recovery

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to use a novel virtual reality intervention to test for efficacy in reducing alcohol use and increasing abstinence, with concomitant increases in future self-identification, future time perspective, and delay-of-reward, in early recovering alcohol use disorder (AUD) persons. The main question\[s\] this trial aims to answer are: Will the Virtual Reality (VR) intervention decrease the number of stimulant use days? Will the VR intervention produce longer abstinence periods during follow-up visits? Will the VR intervention increase alcohol abstinence rates? Will the VR intervention increase future self-identification? Will the VR intervention increase self-reported future time perspective? Will the VR intervention increase preference for delayed rewards in a laboratory delay discounting task on the study day? Will the VR intervention produce gains in the behavioral effects of future self-identification, future time perspective, and delayed rewards at the 30-day and 6-month follow-ups? Researchers will compare the experimental and control groups to see if there are differences in the results for the questions outlined above.

Eligibility

Age range

18–60 years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

No

Interventions

• Device
  Virtual Reality

  They will receive a Virtual Reality Park experience, which is an empty park with no avatars. They will then have a Virtual Reality Avatar experience, where they will see an avatar resembling themselves in a park setting.

• Device
  Virtual Reality

  They will receive a Virtual Reality Park experience, which is an empty park with no avatars.

Location