Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc., a physician-led, science-focused cannabis company and IP incubator, has this week announced that its subsidiary, Resurgent Biosciences (Resurgent), has filed for a US patent to create an expansive suite of virtual reality (VR) applications that can be used by practitioners during psychedelic-based therapies to enhance and guide patients through the experience and potentially create optimized, longer-lasting therapeutic outcomes.
Scientific research into the use of psychedelics and their potential benefits for mental health has led to more mainstream acceptance in recent years. Pairing VR with a psychedelic experience could therefore provide the tools needed to create a consistent and repeatable therapeutic experience for multiple users.
According to Resurgent, one unmet need in the psychedelic space is a scalable platform that will allow medical practitioners to administer psychedelic medicine remotely in a consistent and controlled environment. To address this need, Resurgent is developing a suite of VR applications that will provide customizable environments and programs for psychedelic therapy and the extensive preparation work necessary to optimize therapeutic psychedelic experiences.
“The therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicines at least partially depends on an effective preparation phase to ensure that patients are in the right mindset and in beneficial surroundings in order to create a positive experience, which is often referred to as set and setting,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kyle Kingsley, M.D. “We believe that VR programs allow practitioners to better prepare and guide patients through their experiences and may optimize therapeutic approaches with psychedelic medicines.”
Resurgent has contracted with Cubicle Ninjas, a VR development firm in Chicago, to begin work on development of a VR suite for various technology applications for psychedelic therapies. Resurgent stated that Cubicle Ninjas was selected due to its VR development expertise, particularly in the context of health and wellness applications.
Resurgent and Cubicle Ninjas plan to begin developing the following VR applications:
- A scalable VR platform for use in psychedelic medicine, which will provide support for the preparation phase, the peak experience phase, and the post-experience integration phase;
- A psychedelic biofeedback VR research tool, which will focus on providing users simulated psychedelic and other VR experiences coupled with extensive biofeedback data collection with the goal of identifying digital biomarkers that may predict which patients will have the best therapeutic outcomes with psychedelic therapy;
- A group integration experience, which will replicate a collective, interactive, group psychedelic experience by harnessing the power of VR to bring remote users into a shared virtual space before, during, and after a peak psychedelic experience.
According to the company, the applications will allow practitioners and patients to customize and adapt VR programs based on individual needs with easy-to-use controls and settings. Resurgent expects to have working prototypes completed by the end of the year.
For more information on Resurgent Biosciences, click here.
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Image credit: Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc.
