Immersive Virtual Reality for Pediatric Pain

Abstract

Children must often endure painful procedures as part of their treatment for various medical conditions. Those with chronic pain endure frequent or constant discomfort in their daily lives, sometimes severely limiting their physical capacities. With the advent of affordable consumer-grade equipment, clinicians have access to a promising and engaging intervention for pediatric pain, both acute and chronic. In addition to providing relief from acute and procedural pain, virtual reality (VR) may also help to provide a corrective psychological and physiological environment to facilitate rehabilitation for pediatric patients suffering from chronic pain. The special qualities of VR such as presence, interactivity, customization, social interaction, and embodiment allow it to be accepted by children and adolescents and incorporated successfully into their existing medical therapies. However, the powerful and transformative nature of many VR experiences may also pose some risks and should be utilized with caution. In this paper, we review recent literature in pediatric virtual reality for procedural pain and anxiety, acute and chronic pain, and some rehabilitation applications. We also discuss the practical considerations of using VR in pediatric care, and offer specific suggestions and information for clinicians wishing to adopt these engaging therapies into their daily clinical practice.

Music-Enhanced Analgesia and Antiseizure Activities in Animal Models of Pain and Epilepsy: Toward Preclinical Studies Supporting Development of Digital Therapeutics and Their Combinations With Pharmaceutical Drugs

“…For example, following a pivotal clinical study, the music-based video game, MusicGlove, received regulatory clearance by the Food and Drug Administration as a stroke therapy (120,121). Positive data from clinical studies of digital technologies for the treatment of pain suggest an emergence of "digital analgesics" (11,13,14). Using digital therapeutics to deliver non-pharmacological interventions such as music and/or physical exercise creates new opportunities for combining these modalities with pharmacotherapies and clinicallyvalidated natural products (4)(5)(6).…”

“…Several mobile apps and video games (Table S1) received approval, or clearance, from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) using software as a medical device (SaMD) regulatory mechanism (7,8). There are also increased interests in developing mobile apps for people living with chronic pain (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and epilepsy (6,(17)(18)(19).…”

Abordagem da Dor em Dermatologia (Parte I)

“…Como curiosidade, também a utilização de realidade virtual (RV) como estratégia de distração em crianças submetidas a cuidados de penso de queimaduras, procedimentos muitas vezes repetidos ao longo do internamento, mostrou eficácia na redução da ansiedade e da intensidade da dor associada. 39 Resultados semelhantes com RV foram já replicados noutros contextos clínicos.…”

Feasibility, acceptability and clinical implementation of an Immersive Virtual Reality intervention to address psychological wellbeing in children and adolescents with cancer

“…needle; pain) towards more pleasant or interesting stimuli presented in VR; resulting in lowered pain perception and pain behaviour (e.g. grimacing, crying, moaning, moving) (Malloy & Milling, 2010;Won et al, 2017). These effects have been demonstrated in children undergoing various medical procedures such as intravenous cannulas (Gold, Kim, Kant, Joseph, & Rizzo, 2006), cancer treatments including chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, and port access (Gershon, Zimand, Pickering, Rothbaum, & Hodges, 2004;Sander Wint, Eshelman, Steele, & Guzzetta, 2002;Schneider & Workman, 1999Wolitzky, Fivush, Zimand, Hodges, & Rothbaum, 2005), burn-wound cleaning (Dascal et al, 2017;Jeffs et al, 2014) and traumatic wound care (Hua, Qiu, Yao, Zhang, & Chen, 2015).…”