Virtual Reality as a Distraction Technique in Chronic Pain Patients

Wiederhold, Brenda K.; Gao, Kenneth; Sulea, Camelia; Wiederhold, Mark D.

doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0207

Cited by 157 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Only one participant reported any side effect of any kind. This finding is in contrast to the previous study on VR with chronic pain which showed that participants had some side effects though at low levels [20].…”

Section: Summary Discussion and Limitationscontrasting

confidence: 99%

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(512) The impact of virtual reality on chronic pain

Jones¹,

Moore²,

Rose³

et al. 2016

The Journal of Pain

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The treatment of chronic pain could benefit from additional non-opioid interventions. Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be effective in decreasing pain for procedural or acute pain but to date there have been few studies on its use in chronic pain. The present study was an investigation of the impact of a virtual reality application for chronic pain. Thirty (30) participants with various chronic pain conditions were offered a five-minute session using a virtual reality application called Cool! Participants were asked about their pain using a 0-10 visual analog scale rating before the VR session, during the session and immediately after the session. They were also asked about immersion into the VR world and about possible side effects. Pain was reduced from pre-session to post-session by 33%. Pain was reduced from pre-session during the VR session by 60%. These changes were both statistically significant at the p < .001 level. Three participants (10%) reported no change between pre and post pain ratings. Ten participants (33%) reported complete pain relief while doing the virtual reality session. All participants (100%) reported a decrease in pain to some degree between pre-session pain and during-session pain. The virtual reality experience was found here to provide a significant amount of pain relief. A head mounted display (HMD) was used with all subjects and no discomfort was experienced. Only one participant noted any side effects. VR seems to have promise as a non-opioid treatment for chronic pain and further investigation is warranted.

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Section: Summary Discussion and Limitationscontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…A review of the current literature finds that there has been only one study to date assessing the impact of VR on chronic pain [20]. In this study participants were asked about their pain before a VR session and while they were in the VR session.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

(512) The impact of virtual reality on chronic pain

Jones¹,

Moore²,

Rose³

et al. 2016

The Journal of Pain

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Pain perception is always subjective [53], and myriad trait (e.g., personality characteristics, chronic mood disturbance) and state (e.g., negative mood, distraction) factors have been shown to influence pain self-report and associated brain activity [12,23,24,72,78,81,82,85,87]. However, studies proposing functional neuroimaging biomarkers of chronic pain have not adequately addressed these variables in their design, raising questions about the practical application of results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Factors that affect pain ratings and concomitant brain activity include mood [6,72,78,82], recall of autobiographical painful experiences [22,36,40], social support/distraction [11,21,23,87], and expectations of pain intensity/relief [19,39,47,67,86]. Given that such factors have been widely demonstrated to influence pain perception and its neural correlates, it is likely that these variables will similarly impact functional neuroimaging pain biomarkers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative mood influences default mode network functional connectivity in patients with chronic low back pain: implications for functional neuroimaging biomarkers

Letzen

2016

PAIN

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The default mode network (DMN) has been proposed as a biomarker for several chronic pain conditions. DMN functional connectivity (fcMRI) is typically examined during resting-state fMRI, in which participants are instructed to let thoughts wander. However, factors at the time of data collection (e.g., negative mood) that might systematically impact pain perception and its brain activity, influencing the application of the DMN as a pain biomarker, are rarely reported. The present study measured whether positive and negative moods altered DMN fcMRI patterns in chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients, specifically focusing on negative mood due to its clinical-relevance. Thirty-three participants (CLBP = 17) underwent resting-state fMRI scanning before and after sad and happy mood inductions, and rated levels of mood and pain intensity at the time of scanning. Two-way repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted on resting-state functional connectivity data. Significant group (CLBP > HC) X condition (sadness > baseline) interaction effects were identified in clusters spanning parietal operculum/postcentral gyrus, insular cortices, anterior cingulate cortex, frontal pole, and a portion of the cerebellum (pFDR < .05). However, only one significant cluster covering a portion of the cerebellum was identified examining a two-way repeated measures ANOVA for happiness > baseline (pFDR < .05). Overall, these findings suggest that DMN fcMRI is affected by negative mood in individuals with and without CLBP. It is possible that DMN fcMRI seen in chronic pain patients is related to an affective dimension of pain, which is important to consider in future neuroimaging biomarker development and implementation.

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“…One study found that an amputee patient who perceived a vivid subjective experience of moving their phantom limb reportedly showed the bimanualcoupling effect during the BCT, although another patient without this experience did not show the coupling effect (Franz and Ramachandran, 1988). Alternatively, VR systems have been used to distract attention from pain (Keefe et al, 2012;Guo et al, 2014;Walker et al, 2014;Wiederhold et al, 2014) and decrease negative emotions about pain (Herrero et al, 2014;Triberti et al, 2014;Garcia-Palacios et al, 2015). A high OI associated with BCT performance would indicate vivid movement representations of the affected hand (drawing circles), independent of real movements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%