WEBVTT - Managing Pain through Virtual Reality 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:06.440 In the future, managing pain may involve putting on a 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:10.280 helmet and entering another world. I'm Jonathan Strickland and this 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:17.239 is text up Daily. In the nineteen nineties, VR became 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.400 a big tech buzzword that had a lot of hype 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.720 behind it. From Hollywood to mainstream reporting. It seemed like 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.720 everyone was convinced that we would soon be entering virtual 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:30.200 realms for the most mundane computer transactions. Everything from games 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.280 to shopping would be affected. Any experience you had in 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.760 the real world could be and would be simulated and 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.240 enhanced in the virtual one. But the technology of VR 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:44.080 at the time was fairly primitive and incredibly expensive. The 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.720 experience of using VR did not match up to the 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.280 ones that people expected. Interest in the field began to wane, 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.960 and soon VR pioneers found themselves struggling to make progress 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.040 and to raise money needed for research and development. That 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.520 didn't stop VR from evolving, however, and one the areas 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.080 of research that showed promise was in medicine. Working with 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.560 doctors of different disciplines, VR experts have found that virtual 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.840 reality can be an effective method to treat certain conditions 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.160 and pain itself. For example, doctors have seen great success 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.240 when using virtual reality to help patients deal with anxiety 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:22.440 or even phobias. Virtual reality exposure therapy has been used 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.759 to reduce the impact phobias can have. VR gives people 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.040 the chance to progress through cognitive behavioral therapy, identifying the 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.360 thoughts that lead to negative feelings and finding ways to 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.200 replace those thoughts with more positive ones. Doctors pair this 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.000 within vivo exposure therapy. One interesting thing is that people 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.600 can and do go through the same emotional reactions when 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.280 they encounter a virtual representation of their fear as they 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.280 would with the real thing. A person afraid of heights 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.240 will feel his or her body react to being on 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.680 a virtual skyscraper as it would in a real location. 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.040 Because the patient knows they are in reality within a 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.480 safe physical environment, they don't necessarily feel as much anxiety 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.920 leading up to the therapy. This helps them cope with 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.960 the experience and use various techniques to deal with their fears. 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.440 The same is true with therapy designed to treat general anxiety. 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.160 VR in many ways helps people explore techniques like meditation, 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:19.960 which have been proven to work as a coping mechanism, 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:24.160 but doctors rarely suggest meditation to patients. Largely because such 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.120 advice often goes unheeded. VR can also be used to 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.640 help deal with acute pain. Hunter Hoffman, a researcher at 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:33.880 the University of Washington, has done a great deal of 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.960 work exploring this use of VR. Some of that work 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.160 includes helping to distract burn patients during wound care. Patients 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.320 with burns must have their wounds cleaned frequently, a process 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.600 as often accompanied by severe acute pain. Hoffman's work has 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.720 found that when patients participate in an immersive virtual experience, 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.440 they tend to register less pain than if they were 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.400 to watch a meditative video or do nothing at all. 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.799 Patients have reported experience as much as twenty five percent 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.760 less pain than they would feel otherwise. This is tremendous news. 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.440 If VR can be used to help treat people's pain, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.960 it can reduce their dependence upon powerful pain killers. In 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.399 the United States, opioids, drugs that are similar to opium 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.239 and that bind to one or more of the three 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.960 opioid receptors of the body, are a big problem. Opioid 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.519 use can be accompanied by a sense of euphoria as 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.440 well as pain relief. This has led some people to 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.200 misuse the drugs even following the directions of medical staff 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.560 can lead to a dependence upon opioids. Misuse can also 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.880 lead to overdoses, which can be fatal. Creating a new 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.680 method to help manage pain could literally save lives. It's 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.840 fair to point out, though, that while VR is a 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.120 relatively new technology, the technique to reduce pain by giving 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.280 the brain a different task to focus upon isn't new. 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.680 Whether it is meditation or some other task, people have 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.560 known for centuries that occupying the brain can cut down 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.400 on the amount of pain we consciously experience. The hypothesis 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.600 for what is going on goes like this, Pain is 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.920 communicated through our nervous system. The pain signals come from 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.080 our peripheral nervous system to our brains, which then register 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.040 the signals and produce the sensation of pain. When we 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.240 focus on another task or experience, we shut down some 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.200 of those pathways that otherwise would allow pain to get through. 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.800 Your brain is too busy to feel pain, I imagine 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.280 this is what Patrick Swayzy's brain was doing through most 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.880 of Roadhouse. While VR has become an effective tool for 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.880 treating acute pain, the question remains whether or not it 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.600 will be equally as useful when dealing with chronic pain. 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.880 Much of that is dependent upon the patient following instructions 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.880 and using the VR hardware to go into a virtual environment. 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.600 It's possible that future hospitals will put post op patients 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.640 through virtual reality pain management sessions, improving their overall quality 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.920 of life while avoiding the use of chemical pain suppressants. 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.960 That's all for today. To learn more about virtual reality 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.160 and medicine, subscribe to the tech Stuff podcast. We explore 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.240 these and other tech topics in much greater detail. See 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:00.800 You Against It.