Study of the Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Treatment in the Management of Smoking Cessation

"Participants are smokers seeking treatment. Patients will be randomized into one of the 2 intervention groups.~In all cases, patients will receive nicotine replacement therapy. The second physician in charge of the usual tobacco monitoring will adjust the dosage.~Subjects in the usual treatment group will receive 6 weekly individual cognitive behavior therapy sessions lead by a psychologist. The content of CBT is similar in both groups. Subjects in the Virtual Reality group will receive 6 weekly individual CBT sessions followed by 6 virtual therapy sessions. Virtual therapy consists of exposing the patient to 3D situations considered to cause a high risk of smoking relapse and aiming to reduce signal reactivity by extinction. At each session, a neutral exposure will be given at the beginning to facilitate immersion and emergence of the session with a duration determined according to the sensitivity of each patient. Exposure is stopped when the craving approaches the baseline level."

"Participants are smokers seeking treatment. Patients will be randomized into one of the 2 intervention groups. In all cases, patients will receive nicotine replacement therapy. The second physician in charge of the usual tobacco monitoring will adjust the dosage.~Subjects in the usual treatment group will receive 6 weekly individual cognitive behavior therapy sessions lead by a psychologist. The content of CBT is similar in both groups."