Table 1.

Vulnerabilities and ethical manifestations in patients with chronic pain undergoing virtual reality (VR) technology interventions.

Types of vulnerabilities	VR technical attributes	Ethical issues with examples
Inherent vulnerabilities	VR immersion	High degree of immersion: Causes actual damage to patients, such as motion sickness and potential harms of the physical environment Long-term immersion: VR addiction and derealization syndrome
Cognitive vulnerabilities	VR manipulation	False sense of agency: Violates patient autonomy; controls the information patients receive; false and biased representations have negative impacts Commercialization of VR technology: Disease-creating medical practices; designing a VR “addiction” mechanism Privacy leakage: A large amount of personal information, including behavior, emotions, psychological aspects, and habits, is recorded and stored