Pain Reduction after Short Exposure to Virtual Reality Environments in People with Spinal Cord Injury

David Putrino, Laura Tabacof, Erica Breyman, Jordan Revis, Zulfi Soomro, Divija Chopra, Kathleen Delaney, Anna Smeragliuolo and Mar Cortes
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David Putrino: Abilities Research Center, Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Laura Tabacof: Abilities Research Center, Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Erica Breyman: Abilities Research Center, Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Jordan Revis: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA
Zulfi Soomro: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA
Divija Chopra: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA
Kathleen Delaney: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA
Anna Smeragliuolo: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA
Mar Cortes: Abilities Research Center, Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-9

Abstract: Emerging literature suggests that virtual reality (VR) may be a viable therapy for neuropathic pain (NP). This pilot study aimed to investigate the immediate effect of VR in reducing NP in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Eight individuals with chronic NP after SCI were recruited and underwent consecutive exposure to scenery and somatic virtual environments (VE). The numeric rating scale (NRS) was used to assess pain before and after exposure to each VE. The Immersive Tendencies Questionnaire (ITQ) and Presence Questionnaire (UQO-PQ) were used to investigate the interaction between reported pain relief post-intervention with immersion and presence. There was a significant reduction in pain levels (5.1 ± 0.4, mean ± SEM) after short exposure to the scenery (3.1 ± 0.7, p = 0.04) and somatic VE (3.0 ± 0.7, p = 0.04), with no difference between intervention types ( p = 0.56). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the total ITQ score and the change in NRS after the scenery VR intervention (r s = 0.743, p = 0.035). PQ scores showed no significant correlation with changes in pain following either intervention type. We found that short-term exposure to VR environments results in a reduction in chronic NP intensity in people with SCI.

Keywords: virtual reality; neuropathic pain; spinal cord injury; neuroplasticity; immersiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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