REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1448043
This article is part of the Research TopicAddictive Disorders and Digital Medicine: Technology-based solutions for Addictive DisordersView all 12 articles
Virtual Reality and Psychedelics: New Perspectives and New Possibilities in the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder
Provisionally accepted
- 1VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Veterans Health Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, West Haven, United States
- 2Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
- 3Werner Reichardt Center for Integrative Neurosciences, University of Tübingen, Tuebingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
- 4MEG Center, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 5Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy
- 6Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC), New Haven, Connecticut, United States
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Psychedelic-assisted therapy is a remarkably promising treatment for substance use disorders and for alcohol use disorder (AUD) in particular. Research supporting psychedelics as a safe and effective pharmacotherapy for AUD and its comorbid psychiatric conditions dates from the late1940s and includes over 2,000 published studies. There are, however, challenges to the clinical implementation of psychedelics on a scale appropriate to a highly prevalent disease. Virtual reality applications can aid in meeting these challenges. Studies have shown that virtual reality simulations of psychedelic phenomenology (VRP) can replicate neurophysiological and behavioral markers of classic serotonergic psychedelics when viewed by healthy subjects. The results of these studies suggest VRP may have utility as an adjunct to or replacement for aspects of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Here, we introduce four potential clinical applications for VRP in psychedelic-assisted therapy: to prepare for psychedelics, to extend and enhance their efficacy, to facilitate integration following psychedelic dosing, and to standardize the set and setting. VRP may also have application to clinical research in psychedelics as a placebo and as a tool for interrogating the subjective experience of psychedelics in the therapeutic setting. Integrating virtual reality into psychedelic therapy and research holds the promise of new possibilities for psychedelic treatment and new pathways to their implementation.
Keywords: virtual reality, Psychedelic assisted therapy (PAT), Alcohol use disorder (AUD), psychedelic placebo, Psychedelic phenomenology, DeepDream
Received: 12 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Matthews, Greco, Rastelli and Bassir Nia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Scott Matthews, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Veterans Health Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, West Haven, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.