A short virtual reality session significantly lessened pain in patients with cancer, a new study has found.
Most people with cancer experience pain and treatment usually involves pain-relieving medications, such as opioids.
However, a clinical trial led by researchers at Georgetown University School of Medicine and MedStar Health found that a 10-minute virtual reality session helped to relieve pain in hospitalized individuals. Participants in the trial even experienced benefits a day after the session.
For the study, 128 adults with cancer with moderate or severe pain were either given an immersive virtual reality intervention involving calm, pleasant environments, or a 10-minute two-dimensional guided imagery experience on an iPad tablet.
The patients were asked to report their pain before and after the session, scoring it from 0 to 10.
Although both interventions relieved pain, the virtual reality sessions had a greater impact.
People who experienced the guided imagery reported an average decrease of 0.7 points in pain scores. Meanwhile, those in the VR group reported an average drop of 1.4.
Twenty-four hours after the intervention, participants in the VR group reported sustained improvement in pain severity–1.7 points lower than baseline before the virtual reality intervention. The guided imagery group reported pain that was only 0.3 points lower than the baseline.
People who experienced the virtual reality intervention also reported feeling less distressed by the pain they were experiencing.
"Results from this trial suggest that immersive virtual reality may be a useful non-medication strategy to improve the cancer pain experience," said Dr. Hunter Groninger, MD and study author.
"While this study was conducted among hospitalized patients, future studies should also evaluate virtual reality pain therapies in outpatient settings and explore the impact of different virtual reality content to improve different types of cancer-related pain in different patient populations.
"Perhaps one day, patients living with cancer pain will be prescribed a virtual reality therapy to use at home to improve their pain experience, in addition to usual cancer pain management strategies like pain medications."
Previous research has found virtual reality interventions to be a non-invasive way to reduce pain, without the use of medicines. In 2022, a study published in BMC Emergency Medicine found that virtual reality sessions lessened pain and anxiety in patients in an emergency room setting.
How exactly virtual reality may relieve pain is unknown, but researchers believe it may provide a distraction or help people stay "present" while experiencing discomfort. Scientists also suggest it may lead to the closure of specific neural "gateways" in the brain which may reduce the perception of pain.
The full results of the trial were published by CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
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