Can Virtual Reality be used to reduce pain
Haley Hummerston
Virtual
Reality (VR) has been used to manage pain and distress associated with a wide
variety of known painful medical procedures. In clinical settings and
experimental studies, participants immersed in VR experience reduced levels of
pain, general distress/unpleasantness and report a desire to use VR again
during painful medical procedures.
Investigators
hypothesize that VR acts as a non-pharmacologic form of analgesia by exerting
an array of emotional affective, emotion-based cognitive and attentional
processes on the body’s intricate pain modulation system.
Researchers
began to explore virtual reality as a therapy for pain in the late 1990s, but
the expensive and bulky equipment prevented it from gaining popularity. Today’s
VR systems are more affordable, lightweight, smaller and more comfortable. Many
use a smartphone for the display and hardware, which can cut costs. A number of
recent studies have attempted to provide evidence that VR distraction therapy
works. In 2017, the director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai and
colleagues published a controlled trial testing the effects on pain of a 3D VR
experience versus a 2D nature video on a TV screen in 100 hospitalized
patients. Although both methods lowered perceived pain levels, patients in the
VR group reported a greater reduction in pain, on average than the TV group.
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