Can virtual reality help reduce pain in patients with chronic orofacial pain conditions?
Although previous studies have shown that virtual reality may hold potential to aid in pain management, there have been few studies exploring the mechanisms through which immersive virtual reality experiences can affect pain processing.
In a new study, published in Pain, researchers used a randomized-crossover design, pressure pain detection and tolerance thresholds, spatial and temporal summation, and conditioned pain modulation to analyze how immersive virtual reality environments influenced pain processing in 28 patients with chronic orofacial pain conditions and 31 pain-free controls.
The effects of the immersive virtual reality environments involving an interactive, three-dimensional landscape were compared with mental imagery of the landscape scene delivered through a standardized audio file with headphones and a nonimmersive control condition in which the landscape was two-dimensional. The researchers measured phasic cuff pressure on the participants’ legs. The participants also completed a questionnaire to collect information on their age, gender, marital status, level of education, employment status, smoking status, and chronic pain over the past 4 weeks.
Despite having lower pain thresholds and conditioned pain modulation effects, as well as higher temporal summation, the patients with chronic orofacial pain conditions experienced comparable pain inhibition after participating in the immersive virtual reality environment as controls.
All three methods were found to decrease conditioned pain modulation effects compared with baseline measures. Further, compared with mental imagery and the nonimmersive control condition, the immersive virtual reality environment offered greater pain modulatory effects. However, the immersive virtual reality environment did not impact temporal and spatial summation.
The researchers concluded that virtual reality may help increase pain thresholds and modulate pain perception in both patients with chronic pain and controls.
No conflicts of interest were disclosed.
