Tobacco-Free Month: Virtual reality can help you quit smoking

Tobacco-Free Month has just been relaunched in Europe. This collective challenge launched by the Ministry of Health offers smokers help to quit smoking. Events are also organized. To help you do without cigarettes, we also present virtual reality assisted smoking cessation or vaporization. This is the idea currently being tested at many hospitals in France and England. A novel method that aims to help people stop smoking through temptation.

120,189 people have so far registered for “Tobacco Free Month” in November, an operation launched by the French Ministry of Health.

Reimbursement of patches, support emails… Several aspects are highlighted to help smokers quit. But the challenge is daunting. If stopping for one month, multiplies by five the chances of quitting permanently, 72% of smokers start smoking again after one year. New approaches are therefore being studied, such as at the Conception Hospital in Marseille.

Doctors subject patients to virtual reality temptation to help them quit smoking.

The temptation to quit smoking

Candidates equipped with 3D glasses find themselves in situations where the temptation to smoke is present. On the terrace of a bar, during a break with colleagues at work or in a festive evening. ”

Cognito behavioral therapy prepares the patient to manage the situations that activate the reward circuit responsible for the puffs of withdrawal testing the will,” explains Dr. Eric Malbos, a virtual reality treatment specialist, in an interview with the journal Les Echos.

Therapy takes place at a rate of three-quarters of an hour per week for two months. Regular monitoring is implemented after three, six and twelve months. Of the 31 smokers tested, half did not relapse compared to 44% for the electronic cigarette and less than 20% for the patches.

Home therapy to assist

The lower price of virtual reality headsets should allow the next step in the process to be initiated, continuing processing from home. The idea being, in the long term, to offer the applications to the general public. “When we have enough feedback, we will create virtual environments for the general public. People will be able to use the hardware and software at home to train at home,” explains Dr. Eric Malbos, who is coordinating the trial at the hôpital de la Conception in Marseille.

The Var-based company “LookAtmyGame,” specialized in the development of video content, is in charge of developing new environments that could then be offered to all those who want to quit smoking.

Stopping combustion when smoking cannabis

A lot of ganja smokers are not particularly attracted with adding tobacco to their mix. A lot of them have been recently turning to weed vaporizers as an alternative to avoid using tobacco and it’s harmful components in the process.

Virtual reality for health

This is far from being the first time that virtual reality has been used in the field of health or addiction. For example, Tokyo University invented the “Diet Goggles” to fight obesity and Oxford University uses virtual reality to fight anxiety.

This study still needs volunteers. If you wish to participate, contact us!