(410) Therapeutic Virtual Reality in Pain Management

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) in its simplest form has been around for centuries. The advancement of VR technology along with substantial decrease in costs has enabled the development of scalable virtual reality products. The coalescence of these events has resulted in an exponential increase in investment in the field resulting in the generation of multiple industry verticals. One of the fastest growing sectors in VR is healthcare. Built on decades of research in the lab and in the clinic, VR has been shown to be a promising therapeutic modality for a variety of medical conditions. Pain management has been the most widely studied of all the disease areas explored to date. Over the past 30+ years, researchers have been focused on investigating the benefit of the immersive environment of VR, its durability of effect, mechanism of action and impact on pain regions of the brain in comparison to common opioid analgesics. Recent clinical have demonstrated significant reduction in patient pain levels when exposed to VR. The substantial scientific evidence and potential to help patients in need drives appliedVR's mission to revolutionize pain management through immersive technology.