Is Curing Pain With Virtual Reality Really A Good Thing?

Virtual reality (VR) is an emergent technology that is growing rapidly; however, the expanse of its applications and effects on human health remain critical areas of further research and experimentation. While some believe this nascent technology to be a panacea for all things, we ought to approach this 'tool' with caution and perhaps even skepticism.

One area that VR is being applied to is in pain relief. According to MIT Technology Review, AppliedVR is a company that designs VR software that distracts sufferers from pain, particularly after medical procedures. According to the report, AppliedVR has designed three different programs, two for pain relief and one for anxiety. "Headsets running AppliedVR’s platform are being used in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and clinics for things like drawing blood and administering epidurals, as well as for pain management after operations," the article claims. 

Dutch burns unit trialling, The Daily Mail

What's driving this technology is the declining cost of VR headsets, such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Oculus Rift. In the past, a headset used under medical procedures and conditions was in the ballpark of $40,000, but now a doctor or medical clinic can purchase much more affordable VR equipment and run the types of programs developed by AppliedVR, thus allowing the technology to spread.

AppliedVR has been involved in research with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles on the effects of the software on pain treatment. One of the studies was with 60 patients in recovery from different kinds of ailments, such as abdominal pain, pancreatitis, etc. Patients were hooked up to a VR headset and run through a game called Bear Blast, in which one is taken through a virtual environment where one lobs balls at as many bears as possible. Unlike most other games, the player cannot get hurt or die. Here are the results from this particular test:

[Researchers] found that 20 minutes with the virtual-reality software reduced patients’ pain by 24 percent on average; before using VR the patients had a mean pain score of roughly 5.5 on a zero to 10 scale, he says, and afterward it averaged 4.

Other areas of application, according to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, will be for patients to use VR at the hospital, at home, and even prior to medical procedures to cope with their anxiety. 

Like most beta-products, this sounds like a wonderful and facile solution to pain management: instead of hooking people up to IVs pumping drugs, plug them into a marathon of Bear Blast. Doesn't that just sound idyllic? But there are other researchers out there sitting, standing, and crawling their way through VR environments who are not as optimistic about the technology--at least this iteration of it. 

Take, for instance, Scott Stein for Cnet who claims in his article The Dangers of Virtual Reality:

Virtual Reality is amazing, but it isn't safe. It isn't easy. And with the complicated hardware being released now, it could end up being a nightmare in the wrong hands.

One of the most significant concerns for Stein is that Virtual Reality makes people sick, which of course undermines its efficacy as a remedy for pain. And it's not a sickness that you feel a little at the front end, but dissipates moments later. Here's Stein:

VR-induced nausea is a very real thing. I used to feel dizzy and sick every time I tried early VR hardware, and those moments have diminished greatly. But they still happen, even to me...and I consider myself a seasoned VR veteran.

This isn't a first-timer strapping on the headset and complaining of nausea--this is a seasoned veteran. Many VR handbooks recommend taking frequent breaks; but if I'm hooked up to a game that's distracting me from pain but from which I have to take frequent breaks, how is that a remedy? At least I know that with a pain-killer I have so many hours of relief. So with VR I can instead count on 20 minutes of pain relief, followed by a break during which I feel nauseous--perhaps even lapse into a seizure--followed by another measly 20 minutes of pain relief while lobbing balls at unassuming bears. 

The second concern Stein has is with the nature of the equipment itself: it prevents you from sensing the environment around you. You're eyes and ears are covered, which not only feels eerie, but also impairs your ability to sense things around you. Stein has seen people accidentally hit those who are standing in front of them; and apparently it's not uncommon for one to whack oneself in the head while in the throes of a game, simply because of one's senses being impaired. 

Like everything else, those taking VR therapy for their pain will have to sign off on a ream of precautions and waivers, not unlike any other medical treatment. And the counter-argument to my criticisms about the side-effects of VR is that pain medication has its own grocery-list of side-effects. 

The question is whether VR is a difference that makes a difference, or is simply another option of pain treatment with its limits and side-effects. 

Another question for me is whether one would want to go on a VR trip to manage pain or anxiety, and what an addiction to this experience would be like. If you're using something to distract from the pain, and the pain persists, your dependency on the experience will persist. Stein, for instance, claims that VR takes you completely away from the 'reality' of friends and family and fully immerses you into another world. Is this any different from the opium dens of the 19th Century in which people would trip out for weeks and months on end? Would VR treatment lead to a similar experience? Indeed, people 'trip out' on prescription drugs all the time, so in this case one could argue there isn't much difference; however, VR is a complete sensory immersion, via technology, into another world, one that has the power to even distract from pain--a kind of utopian world (Utopia means 'no place') where bears run around at which you cast facile balls without pain or death. What kind of reality is this? And what are the implications for spending extensive periods of time in this world in escape of pain and suffering, or anxiety for that matter? 

Indeed, there are those who believe technology is the panacea for all the world's ills; and that if it's not right now, it will be in a few more iterations. There are others, however, who are highly skeptical of it, and see in technology the demise of humankind itself. Both points of view must be held in tension when we come across such seemingly blithe reports of the medical benefits of machines.