Advertisement
Drug rehabilitation centers in China are using VR to treat addicts
But nobody has been cured via VR therapy yet
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
This article originally appeared on ABACUS
While many debate whether virtual reality is addictive, China is trying to use it to cure addiction.
In Shanghai and Hangzhou, drug rehabilitation centers have been hoping that virtual reality can help patients get rid of addiction by making them want drugs -- then confronting them with their damaging effects.
The system will first trigger drug cravings by immersing them in scenes that they’re familiar with, like drug users gathering in a room, or the sound of drugs burning in a pipe. That’s quickly followed by videos of police busting down the door -- and more disgusting scenes, like rotten teeth or maggots gnawing on skin.
Advertisement
“There’s a short period of weakness after a person’s memory is woken up,” the project manager of Seventh Technology, one of the VR system suppliers, said in a video report in May, “and we hit them with repulse in that brief window of time.”
The treatment then ends with heartwarming scenes of peaceful family life.
Advertisement
The headsets can track eye movement as well as an electrocardiograph system. Together it records a person’s reaction, and can allegedly measure how much they’re still craving drugs.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x