Real Pain Dulled In Virtual Worlds 237
26199 writes "The BBC is reporting on a novel use of Virtual Reality: as a distraction for burn victims who suffer excruciating pain during daily dressing changes. What's most interesting is that it actually works. Another use of VR discussed is in the treatment of patients suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; memories can be relived until they are accepted."
Amazing... (Score:4, Insightful)
Safe? (Score:5, Insightful)
Detachment from Reality (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds scary to me. Picture a person who can't live in the outside world because they have developed a psychological disorder based on the fact that the outside world only gives them pain.
Or the Slashdot reader who wants to experience VR so badly that he lights himself on fire...
that last one is definitely more likely, isn't it?
Re:Safe? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Safe? (Score:3, Insightful)
Physical pain (like that of the burn victims) is one thing; emotional pain is something else entirely.
Both sides shown (Score:3, Insightful)
Just remember, as with all emergant technologies, there are ups and downs, depending at who's disposal the technology is used. This could be, and sounds like it is, helpful towards medical purposes, and as others have mentioned, sure it could have problems with making a person desensitized.
I say, give it time, take it slowly, and just hope for the best.
Speaking of downsides, I can't imagine what the government is thinking about doing with this sort of stuff :P
Hmmm ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I believe we already have a cure... (Score:4, Insightful)
Finding a way to distract patients from pain is a far greater solution than medication. No side effects, no expensive or addictive substances to use (well, those who really like MMORPGs would disagree with my "addictive" statement, but...), and in general would be preferred over medication.
I mean, this daily dressing routine... it takes only a fraction of the day. Giving them morphine for it then ruins the majority of their day, as they spend it in a near-lifeless stupor. And without anything, those few minutes of the day would no doubt be torturous...
Distraction (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Detachment from Reality (Score:2, Insightful)
Those people just don't wonder. They want it.
Your reasonment is the one from a safe and non-burnt person.
You have *no* idea how these people suffer.
No offense to you, BTW.
Regards,
jdif
Lucid Dreams would be better and more realistic (Score:2, Insightful)
These are dreams where you are aware that you are dreaming, so one of the things you can do with them is this 'therapy' mentioned in this story. Even Dr Laberge mentioned a similar therapy.
See www.ld4all.com [ld4all.com] for further information.
Pain vs. pain (Score:3, Insightful)
But I also suspect that the main reason that we see physical and emotional pain as being different is that we see emotional pain as uniquely human, something that separates us from "the animals".
I can't speak for anyone else, but I always saw it as the difference between a point source (physical pain) and lack thereof (emotional pain). I agree some people may take the human/animal point of view, but I wouldn't go so far as saying that physical and emotional pain are "the same". To put it in /. terms, Windows and Linux are both "produced" by the same hardware, and have the same general purpose--but I don't think anyone would claim they're the same thing!
As far as souls go, I'm reserving judgement for now--ask me again when you've got a human backup system working. ;)
desensitized != no emotions (Score:3, Insightful)
The term "desensitized" has a specific meaning in psychiatry and psychology: it does not mean "callous" or "indifferent". It means that a certain stimulus no longer creates as strong an emotional reaction as it once did. And for PTSD and phobias, those emotions are so strong and incapacitating (they replay at the original intensity or even higher, and with the added fear of another attack or flashback) that the patient is unable to come to terms with them until they are desensitized.
Re:Safe? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Safe? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not a dualist from a metaphysical perspective. But we simply don't experience what we call 'physical' and 'mental' events the same way, and that lends a hell of a lot more than judeo-christian mumbo jumbo to the list of dualist arguments. It also means that behaviorist and other reductionist arguments are extremely unsatisfying where talk about feelings is concerned -- yeah, it's just great that their philosophical agenda is so pure and clean and right, but they're a million miles away from anything that anyone actually feels.
Re:Safe? (Score:2, Insightful)
IANAPsychiatrist.