VR Treatment For Chronic Pain Gets FDA Authorization (theverge.com) 20
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Food and Drug Administration authorized a virtual reality system as a prescription treatment for chronic back pain, the agency announced today. The therapy, called EaseVRx, joins the short list of digital therapeutics cleared by the agency over the past few years. EaseVRx includes a VR headset and a device that amplifies the sound of the user's breath to assist in breathing exercises. It uses principles from cognitive behavior therapy, which aims to help people recognize and understand various thought patterns and emotions. The program addresses pain through relaxation, distraction, and improved awareness of internal signals, the FDA said in its statement.
The FDA authorized EaseVRx based on data from an eight-week study in 179 people with low back pain that had lasted six months or longer. Half used the EaseVRx program and half participated in another, two-dimensional virtual reality program that did not use cognitive behavioral therapy methods. Around two-thirds of participants using EaseVRx said they had more than 30 percent reduction in pain, while only 41 percent of the control group had a similar reduction. The reduced pain lasted for up to three months after the study for people in the EaseVRx group but not for the control group. The VR system could be an alternative option to opioid medications for back pain, Christopher Loftus, acting director of the Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices at the FDA, said in a statement. [...] EaseVRx was developed by the company AppliedVR, which is also testing its platform as a treatment for fibromyalgia pain, burn pains, or pain during childbirth. The clearance for EaseVRx comes around a month after the FDA approved a VR treatment for children with the visual disorder amblyopia, or lazy eye.
The FDA authorized EaseVRx based on data from an eight-week study in 179 people with low back pain that had lasted six months or longer. Half used the EaseVRx program and half participated in another, two-dimensional virtual reality program that did not use cognitive behavioral therapy methods. Around two-thirds of participants using EaseVRx said they had more than 30 percent reduction in pain, while only 41 percent of the control group had a similar reduction. The reduced pain lasted for up to three months after the study for people in the EaseVRx group but not for the control group. The VR system could be an alternative option to opioid medications for back pain, Christopher Loftus, acting director of the Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices at the FDA, said in a statement. [...] EaseVRx was developed by the company AppliedVR, which is also testing its platform as a treatment for fibromyalgia pain, burn pains, or pain during childbirth. The clearance for EaseVRx comes around a month after the FDA approved a VR treatment for children with the visual disorder amblyopia, or lazy eye.
But what about those who live virtual lives? (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't WE count? We're not just the Sims, you know. We're everywhere. We get virtual back pains -- that probably hurt worse than your 'real' backaches (the amount of pain we feel is limited by bandwidth).
I suppose we have to use an 'actual reality' treatment for virtual back pains?
Non-opioid medication (Score:3)
If only we had an approved non-opioid medication that also offered relaxation, distraction, and improved awareness of internal signals. It should be something that isn't physically addicting, cheap to produce, have multiple delivery methods, and unable to kill through overdose.
Medical marijuana is known to help not only pain management, but a whole list of ailments like Alzheimer's disease, Crohn's disease, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, Schizophrenia, PTSD, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-g... [webmd.com]
If only the federal government would get over its collective fear of removing marijuana from the Schedule 1 list, more reliable research could be done to find the proven benefits of THC in a large-scale clinical studies. The legacy of marijuana's bad reputation should be wiped clean and true clinical studies done. This would lead to standardized dosages, frequency, and delivery methods (edibles, patches, nebulizers, creams, etc).
Or we can let people play video games and hope they get some pain relief.
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The only issue with that kind of medication is that it impairs your ability to do certain tasks. While that doesn't tend to lead to accidents (stats show that for driving it is mitigated by increased caution), it's not an ideal state to be in all the time.
It's great for temporary relief though.
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I prefer VB (Score:2)
... for chronic pain.
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The downside to this method, Is that it creates the appearance that someone is not in pain, Well merely masking it.
Do you have some personal experience or deep knowledge to back up that statement? I ask because I've done a fair bit of both meditation and stressing, and it's clear that the subjective suffering is ramped up based on one's negative thoughts about pain (it's damaging me) and ramped down if one can observe it passively, as a neutral phenomenon that is occurring (like feeling the texture of one's shirt against their skin).
It's not a stretch for me to think that mental practices would reduce the subjective suf
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Thanks for sharing! I'm glad to know you're doing better now. Redirection refers to redirecting your attention, right? If so, it seems like it is the same as what I was talking about (mindful presence rather than rumination). I didn't know it could be related to other mental side effects.
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VSE may help with keeping you out of trouble (it's a coping mechanism for those with Hansen's Disease)
does anyone actually know (Score:2)
The Biggest Pain Is The Medical Community (Score:1)
I would not need medical insurance if I did not have to deal with the chronic pain of clueless doctors and their lousy office staff.