Table 1.

Recent Studies that Show the Efficiency of Virtual Reality (VR) in the Treatment of a Variety of Pain Symptoms

Study	Pain/discomfort studied	Treatment	N	Findings
Ortiz-Catalan et al. (2014)	Phantom limb pain—chronic	Phantom movements were predicted using myoelectric pattern recognition and then used as input for VR and AR environments, including a racing game	1 chronic PLP patient who had shown resistance to a variety of treatments for 48 years	A reduction of time at higher pain intensity levels, as well as the appearance of periods of lower or absent pain within 18 weeks
Loreto-Quijada et al. (2013)	General pain/discomfort	Figures that represented pain were displayed to subjects, who were asked to evaluate in terms of arousal and valence; pain figure was then paired with shock, and nonpain figure was paired with no shock	64 undergraduate students asked to evaluate arousal and valence in response to a figure representing pain	Interaction with VR led to significant increases in pain threshold and tolerance, as well as significantly greater underestimation of time
Bidarra et al. (2013)	Dental treatment pain—acute	VR gaming distraction	—	Preliminary evaluation of dentist and game design domains that influence prototype development for an at-the-dentist VR distraction system
Botella et al. (2013)	Fibromyalgia (FM)—chronic, neuropathic	10 sessions of 2 hours group cognitive behavioral treatment for FM supported by VR	6 women diagnosed with FM, with a mean age of 55 years old (range=47–65; SD=7.6) and a mean duration of diagnosis of 11 years	Results indicate high levels of satisfaction of VR use by 6 patients and reduction in impairment caused by FM symptoms
Kipping et al. (2012)	Pediatric burn wounds—acute	VR exposure, prospective randomized controlled trial using nonpharmacological methods,	41 adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years	Statistically significant reduction in pain scores during dressing removal, and significantly less doses of Entonix given to those receiving VR exposure
Villiger et al. (2013)	Neuropathic pain in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI)—chronic	VR training, uncontrolled	14 iSCI patients were treated over 4 weeks in 16 to20 sessions of 45 minutes	Positive changes reported by patients, improvements in lower limb function, reduced intensity and unpleasantness score on Neuropathic Pain Scale (NPS), and stability of finding even after 12 to 16 weeks of training termination
Cacau Lde et al. (2013)	Cardiac rehabilitation postoperatively—acute	VR cardiac rehabilitation vs. traditional cardiac rehabilitation	30 patients exposed to VR, 30 patients not exposed to VR assessed through functional independence measure (FIM), 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and Nottingham Health Profile (NHP)	VR group shows lower reduction in functional performance on first day after surgery as compared to control group, no significant difference in performance on discharge day, a significant decrease in pain score at the third assessment, higher energy level in first evaluation, no statistical significance for emotional reactions, physical ability, or social interaction, shorter length of stay, and higher 6MWD
Giggins et al. (2013)	Pediatric headache—chronic	VR biofeedback pain management	10 adolescents attending an outpatient pediatric neurology clinic were treated by a system which combined VR and biofeedback	Ratings of pain, daily functioning, and quality of life improved significantly at 1 and 3 months post-treatment
Wiederhold et al. (2012)	Pain in military populations	Review	—	Funded by NATO, United States Army, Defense Ministry of Austria, and Defense Ministry of Croatia
Stetz et al. (2012)	Pain in military populations	CBT to manage pain	42 chronic pain patients from the Tripler Army Medical Center, older than 17 years of age, intact sensory deficits, and cognitively enabled to follow directions	Statistically significant drop in pain rating in technology-assisted sessions than during standard modality