Clinical Trial of Exposure Therapy through Virtual Reality: effect of socialization environments on oxytocin andcortisol concentrations in patients with alcohol dependence syndrome"

• Grant number: 24/13209-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Support Program for Fixating Young Doctors
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: April 23, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - Neuropsychopharmacology
• Agreement: CNPq
• Principal Investigator: Rosana Camarini
• Grantee: Kae Leopoldo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 24/02192-9 - Clinical Trial of Exposure Therapy through Virtual Reality: effect of socialization environments on oxytocin and cortisol concentrations in patients with alcohol dependence syndrome", AP.R

Abstract

Alcohol dependence syndrome makes up an important part of the burden attributable to alcohol consumption, resulting not only in an increase in the number of deaths, but also in years lived with disability, both deleterious to the individual's life, public health and development. economic status of the population. This drives the search for biomarkers that can increase the understanding of the disorder, as well as guide indicators of effectiveness in behavioral interventions and environmental manipulations that aim to promote abstinence and prevent episodes of relapse. Addiction treatment is still a challenge, with a lack of objective indicators of remission, maintenance of abstinence and likelihood of relapse. This results in an active search for new interventions that can make treatment more efficient and promote the reduction of relapses. Among these new interventions, virtual reality exposure therapy (VR-CET) has shown promise. This intervention seeks to expose the patient to proximal and contextual stimuli important to elicit craving, seeking to break the association between environmental conditioned stimuli and the unconditioned stimulus, alcoholic beverages.As it is a non-pharmacological, safe and inexpensive form of therapeutic intervention aimed at improving the relationship between the individual and their environment, especially with regard to triggers associated with alcohol consumption, VR-CET has great potential to be another tool clinic for public policies, assisting the psychosocial care networks of the national Unified Health System. Furthermore, VR-CET can be an important ally in understanding the basic principles of alcohol use disorders, as it provides, with safety and replicability, an intervention to test hypotheses about the effect of different environments and social contexts associated with alcohol use disorders. alcohol consumption and its impact on oxytocin and cortisol levels, in addition to consequences for clinical treatment outcomes (such as maintenance of abstinence and relapse episodes). The role of endogenous oxytocin in alcohol dependence is still poorly understood, especially due to the association of this peptide in several complex functions, such as stress, anxiety and social behaviors. We have recently shown, in animal experiments, that an enriched environment is capable of increasing the concentrations and expression of oxytocin in the hypothalamus. Allowing the analysis of issues associated with both basic and applied research, the sum of VR-CET and the analysis of salivary oxytocin and cortisol has great potential to generate innovative and high-impact research. (AU)