Investigation of the effect of the virtual reality application on experimental pain severity in healthy

Abstract

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effect of virtual reality application on experimental ischemic pain created with a blood pressure instrument in healthy volunteers. METHODS: The research sample consisted of 172 volunteer adult students who conformed to the inclusion criteria. These individuals were assigned into an experimental (n=86) and a control group (n=86) by a simple randomization method. All individuals in the experimental and control groups wereexperimentally subjected to pain for two minutes by applying 260 mmHg of pressure 3-4 cm above the antecubital region of the left arm with an aneroid adult-type blood pressure instrument. During the procedure, the volunteers in the experimental group watched virtual reality images, while those in the control group received no intervention. Immediately after the procedure, the pain levels of the individuals in both groups were assessed with a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). RESULTS: We found that the mean pain score of the individuals in the experimental group was 2.62±1.82, and that of individuals in the control group was 5.75±1.65. Results of the statistical analysis showed a statistically significant difference between the mean pain scores of the individuals in the experimental and control groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study found that the use of virtual reality was effective in reducing the level of pain in healthy individuals. This method used a smartphone with widespread availability and ease of transportation, which can be used by health professionals as a non-pharmacological method in the management of pain.

Effectiveness of Virtual Reality-Based Interventions for Managing Chronic Pain on Pain Reduction, Anxiety, Depression and Mood: A Systematic Review

“…After the full-text screening, 17 studies were excluded. The details of these excluded studies are shown in Supplementary Table S1 [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ]. A total of 17 studies assessed VR-based interventions in chronic pain management.…”

When Less Is More: Investigating Factors Influencing the Distraction Effect of Virtual Reality From Pain

“…Importantly, we quantified the effect of an additional cognitive load not by relying on a single retrospective self-report (59)(60)(61), but by assessing heat pain thresholds in regular intervals while participants were immersed in VR. This makes the data less prone to be biased by social desirability or the elapsed time between the nociceptive stimulation and its evaluation (62,63).…”

Conducta Virtual | Marco de referencia para el diseño de conductas virtuales en el metaverso

“…Este tipo de aprendizaje en los mundo virtuales puede tener su impacto en la sensación de auto-eficacia en la vida real 138 . Además, también se ha demostrado un impacto positivo en el entranamiento de la resiliencia 139 , mejora de la empatía 140,141 , en el tratamiento de trastornos de la ansiedad 142,143 , o incluso en el manejo del dolor físico 144 . Además del impacto psicológico y físico de las actividades del mundo virtual en la vida real, también se * Como curiosidad, esta desvirtualización de las actividades humanas y su sentimiento de co-presencialidad, es una posibilidad limitada por las leyes de la física, circunscribiéndolo únicamente a las actividades humanas realizadas en la tierra.…”