Virtual Reality Interventions and Chronic Pain: Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Health Technology
• Psychology

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) interventions are increasingly used for mood, anxiety, and pain disorders.
• VR offers therapeutic benefits by immersing users in controlled environments, reducing distractions.
• Existing research on VR for chronic pain lacks uniformity in methods and devices, limiting generalizability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of VR studies on chronic pain.
• To analyze intervention types, chosen outcomes, participant samples, and generated data.
• To identify gaps and guide future research in VR for chronic pain.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review of CINAHL and PubMed for "virtual reality" and "pain" in adult chronic pain patients.
• Included immersive VR interventions delivered via headsets.
• Excluded non-study reports, studies without a chronic pain component, and those not involving adults.

Main Results:

• 36 articles were analyzed, revealing heterogeneity in chronic pain types and VR intervention approaches.
• Outcomes, degree of immersion, and side effect monitoring varied significantly across studies.
• Limited systematic exploration of immersion and inadequate side effect reporting were noted.

Conclusions:

• The current body of literature on VR for chronic pain lacks theoretical rigor and consistency.
• Future research should prioritize theoretically grounded studies focusing on mechanisms.
• Systematic assessment of side effects is crucial for developing robust, generalizable VR interventions for chronic pain.