A VR experience can elicit a response indistinguishable from LSD or magic mushrooms.
A VR experience called Isness-D, measured on four key indicators used in studies of psychedelics, showed the same effect as a medium dose of LSD or psilocybin according to a recent study in Nature Scientific Reports.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy is remarkably good at alleviating symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression, which have standard treatments (such as SSRIs) that fail many. The FDA designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy†for severe depression in 2019, fast-tracking its approval process.
The dominant theory on how psychedelics improve clinical outcomes (a debate far from settled) is that their effect is driven by both the subjective experience of a trip and the drug’s neurochemical effect on the brain. Since VR only mirrors the subjective experience, its clinical benefit, which has yet to be rigorously tested, may not be as strong.
However, early indications are that a VR experience can be very therapeutic, and with additional studies underway we will surely see more developments in the months and years to come.
