To Ease Chronic Pain, FDA Approves a New Virtual Reality Device

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If you are suffering from chronic pain, here is good news for you. Because a new virtual reality device has been introduced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help people with chronic pain. It is expected that the new device will be able to understand as well as ease chronic pain.

Credit: indiatimes

50 million people in the U.S.A. are suffering from chronic pain. Health providers are providing different medications and cognitive behavioral therapy to ease the pain. A recent clinical study revealed that the virtual reality device is effective in reducing chronic pain.

The director of the Stanford Pain Relief Innovations Lab in California, Beth Darnall said, “The inspiration behind the EaseVRx was to create a standardized, standalone, high-quality behavioral intervention where people could acquire critical skills set that have been shown through various different types of treatment modalities to both reduce pain and its impacts.” Darnall also said, “But now they can receive it on-demand in the comfort of their own home and in doing so, transcending so many barriers to effective pain care.”

Credit: fiercebiotech

Then Darnall explained the effectiveness of the device, “Individuals turn on the headset and they’re in an immersive 3D world where they can see a new environment around them and be directed to interact within the context of that environment to learn various information such as the role of pain in the brain, how pain exists in the central nervous system, and what can be done to soothe or calm one’s nervous system within the context of pain.”

A licensed psychologist, Lora L. Black mentioned how the device is performing, “This appears to be a good use of technology to enhance self-regulatory techniques that have been shown to be helpful for chronic pain in multiple studies.”

Credit: fiercebiotech

Lora said also stated that the device could be useful in improving access to treatments. She said, “There is also research showing that VR technology can increase adherence to other treatments, such as exercise, so the use of similar technology may be useful in increasing adherence to the self-regulatory techniques as well.”