The use of virtual reality for coping with pain with healthy participants.
The present study investigates whether a virtual reality (VR) intervention can influence pain catastrophizing, pain self-efficacy and other pain-related measures reported during a cold-pressor experience. Forty-five healthy participants underwent two consecutive cold-pressor trials, one using VR and one without VR exposure, in counterbalanced order. The VR intervention encouraged participants to search actively for the correspondence between the pain experienced and a VR stereoscopic figure, which could be interactively manipulated. The VR intervention led to significant increases in pain threshold, pain tolerance and pain self-efficacy, as well as a significant reduction of in vivo pain catastrophizing. The possibilities of using VR as a tool for enhancing perceived pain control are discussed.
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain. jgutierrezm@ub.edu
José
J
Gutiérrez-Maldonado
Olga
O
Gutiérrez-Martínez
Desirée
D
Loreto-Quijada
Rubén
R
Nieto-Luna
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D058443:Catastrophization / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059408:Pain Management / Q000379:methods*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy; D055815:Young Adult