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Papers of the Week


Papers: 8 Feb 2020 - 14 Feb 2020


Human Studies


2019


Front Hum Neurosci


13

Virtual Reality Analgesia With Interactive Eye Tracking During Brief Thermal Pain Stimuli: A Randomized Controlled Trial (Crossover Design).

Authors

Al-Ghamdi NA, Meyer WJ, Atzori B, Alhalabi W, Seibel CC, Ullman D, Hoffman HG
Front Hum Neurosci. 2019; 13:467.
PMID: 32038200.

Abstract

In light of growing concerns about opioid analgesics, developing new non-pharmacologic pain control techniques has become a high priority. Adjunctive virtual reality can help reduce acute pain during painful medical procedures. However, for some especially painful medical procedures such as burn wound cleaning, clinical researchers recommend that more distracting versions of virtual reality are needed, to further amplify the potency of virtual reality analgesia. The current study with healthy volunteers explores for the first time whether interacting with virtual objects in Virtual Reality (VR) via "hands free" eye-tracking technology integrated into the VR helmet makes VR more effective/powerful than non-interactive/passive VR (no eye-tracking) for reducing pain during brief thermal pain stimuli.