Virtual Reality, Tangible Results. Pain Management with VR- By distracting the mind from what was happening to their bodies, the burn patients reported a significant reduction in pain.

By distracting the mind from what was happening to their bodies, the burn patients reported a significant reduction in pain. In granting the RelieVRx a Breakthrough Device distinction, the FDA acknowledged the importance of a chronic pain treatment that does not involve opioid medications. Reducing pain with VR therapy can lead to a reduced need for pain medication, which in turn lowers the risk of opioid addiction.

- By Damien Martin

You're walking through a wide green meadow on a beautiful sunny day. Birds chirp happily in the air. You breathe deeply, in and out. The lone tree at the center of the meadow seems to breathe with you, expanding and contracting with the rhythm. It takes you a while to notice, but once it hits you, you're astounded. Your back doesn't hurt anymore. The pain you've felt almost constantly for years has subsided.

You take off the headset and head home, but even hours after the session, you're still pain-free. You haven't felt this good in a long time, and you have VR pain management to thank.

Acute vs. Chronic Pain

In November 2021, the FDA first approved a VR device, AppliedVR's EaseVRx - now known as RelieVRx for pain management for patients with chronic lower back pain. The eightweek treatment program features daily sessions ranging from 2 to 16 minutes of immersive VR therapy to adjust patients' cognitive, emotional, and physical responses to their chronic pain.

VR had already shown promise in alleviating acute pain, helping burn victims make the experience of having their dressings changed much easier. By distracting the mind from what was happening to their bodies, the burn patients reported a significant reduction in pain.

As Cedar-Sinai Medical Center director of health services research Brennan Spiegel wrote in his book “VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine,” “our brains are designed to live in one reality at a time.” The worldbuilding inside a VR headset is so convincing that we pay little attention to what else is going on. Spiegel and other doctors researching VR pain management are hoping the technology’s power to change our perceptions of the world is so great that it can have lasting effects after the headset comes off.