Virtual reality often seems like a technology desperately seeking a problem to solve, with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg particularly keen to find appealing use cases for the company’s flagship strategy. Research from Indiana University suggests that VR might be useful in terms of helping people to imagine alternate futures, which could be useful in a variety of health settings.

“VR technology is clinically effective and increasingly common for treating a variety of mental health conditions, such as phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and post-operative pain, but has yet to find wide use in substance use disorders intervention or recovery,” the researchers explain.

“Capitalizing on VR’s ability to deliver an immersive experience showing otherwise-impossible scenarios, we created a way for people to interact with different versions of their future selves in the context of substance use and recovery.”

Alternate futures

The researchers worked on the technology for four years, and found that VR simulations of imagined realities can significantly help people to recover from substance abuse because it increases the connectedness they feel with their future selves.

“This experience enables people in recovery to have a personalized virtual experience, in alternate futures resulting from the choices they made,” the researchers continue. “We believe this could be a revolutionary intervention for early substance use disorders recovery, with perhaps even further-reaching mental health applications.”

The researchers believe that the technology could be particularly useful for people in the early stages of recovery where the chances of relapse are highest. They argue that the immersive experiences can better help them to go for longer-term rewards rather than immediate gratification. This is because the immersive environment helps to develop stronger connections with their future selves.

“The ultimate goal of our work is to leverage state-of-the-art VR technology for providing therapeutic experiences to support early recovery—a very dangerous time period marked by a high risk for relapse,” the researchers continue. “Last year marked another grim annual record for drug overdose deaths in the United States, with over 100,000 estimated deaths. New innovations in treatment and recovery are desperately needed.”

The team plan to undergo clinical trials to test for efficacy in relapse prevention, brain activation, and other important elements related to substance use disorder treatment. While the use case is unlikely to prove the value of the metaverse on its own, it is an interesting one nonetheless.