INTERACTIVITY INFLUENCES THE MAGNITUDE OF VIRTUAL REALITY ANALGESIA

Abstract

Despite medication with opioids and other powerful pharmacologic pain medications, most patients rate their pain during severe burn wound care as severe to excruciating. Excessive pain is a widespread medical problem in a wide range of patient populations. Immersive virtual reality (VR) distraction may help reduce pain associated with medical procedures. Recent research manipulating immersiveness has shown that a high tech VR helmet reduces pain more effectively than a low tech VR helmet. The present study explores the effect of interactivity on the analgesic effectiveness of virtual reality. Using a double blind design, in the present study, twenty-one volunteers were randomly assigned to one of two groups, and received a thermal pain stimulus during either interactive VR, or during non-interactive VR. Subjects in both groups individually glided through the virtual world, but one group could look around and interact with the environment using the trackball, whereas participants in the other group had no trackball. Afterwards, each participant provided subjective 0-10 ratings of cognitive, sensory and affective components of pain, and the amount of fun during the pain stimulus. Compared to the non-interactive VR group, participants in the interactive VR group showed 75% more reduction in pain unpleasantness (p < .005) and 74% more reduction in worst pain (p < .005). Interactivity increased the analgesic effectiveness of immersive virtual reality.

Figure 1

Image on left by Stephen Dagadakis, UW, copyright, Hunter Hoffman, UW, shows the 2003 version of SnowWorld, (designed by Hoffman at the University of Washington, www.vrpain.com, and created by Jeff Bellinghausen and Chuck Walter from Multigen, Brian Stewart from SimWright Inc., Howard Abrams (freelance worldbuilder), and Duff Hendrickson, UW). Image on right (photo by Dagadakis, copyright Hoffman ,UW) shows an undergraduate wearing a Rockwell Collins SR80 VR helmet with 80 degrees diagonal field of view.