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The effectiveness of virtual reality distraction for pain reduction: A systematic review
Abstract
Virtual reality technology enables people to become immersed in a computer-simulated, three-dimensional environment. This article provides a comprehensive review of controlled research on the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) distraction for reducing pain. To be included in the review, studies were required to use a between-subjects or mixed model design in which VR distraction was compared with a control condition or an alternative intervention in relieving pain. An exhaustive search identified 11 studies satisfying these criteria. VR distraction was shown to be effective for reducing experimental pain, as well as the discomfort associated with burn injury care. Studies of needle-related pain provided less consistent findings. Use of more sophisticated virtual reality technology capable of fully immersing the individual in a virtual environment was associated with greater relief. Overall, controlled research suggests that VR distraction may be a useful tool for clinicians who work with a variety of pain problems.
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“It is known that VW in this perspective is an established tool for acute affect modulation and acute pain relief [22, 23].”
From Virtual walking therapy in neuropathic spinal cord injury pain: a feasibility study (2024) · cites this paper as [23]
In the citing paper
“In VR relaxation [21] and VR pain management [36], presence is likely a mediator of intervention effects due to the inherent correlation with distraction from the outside and inside world”
From Experiences of gamified and automated virtual reality exposure therapy for spider phobia: qualitative study (2020) · cites this paper as [36]
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“Most past research on VR interventions for mental health have been focused on treating anxiety disorders (9, 11), and for pain distraction (12, 13) and relaxation (14, 15).”
BackgroundSajeev, M. F., Kelada, L., Nur, A. B. Y., Wakefield, C. E., Wewege, M. A., Karpelowsky, J. S., Akimana, B., Darlington, A., & Signorelli, C. (2021) · British Journal of Anaesthesia · doi:10.1016/j.bja.2021.06.039 · Cited by 88
Suleiman‐Martos, N., García‐Lara, R. A., Membrive‐Jiménez, M. J., Pradas‐Hernández, L., Romero‐Béjar, J. L., Dominguez‐Vías, G., & Gómez‐Urquiza, J. L. (2022) · Journal of Clinical Nursing · doi:10.1111/jocn.16227 · Cited by 82
Differential Effects of Two Virtual Reality Interventions: Distraction Versus Pain Control
Loreto-Quijada, D., Gutiérrez‐Maldonado, J., Nieto, R., Gutiérrez-Martínez, O., Ferrer‐García, M., Saldaña, C., Escolano, A. F., & Liutsko, L. (2014) · Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0057 · Cited by 82
“This mechanism is not new, as distraction is a traditional psychological intervention for pain that has been shown to possess considerable efficacy.(4) However, VR distraction is thought to be more effective because it is immersive and engaging, integrating many sensory experiences and, therefore, demanding a greater…”
Tennant, M., McGillivray, J., Youssef, G. J., McCarthy, M., & Clark, T.-J. (2020) · Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing · doi:10.1177/1043454220917859 · Cited by 81
“…immersive and interactive technology, interchangeably referred to as VR or Immersive VR, that simulates reality via perceptual stimulation (e.g., visual cues, sounds, touch), potentially evoking a sense of “presence” in a virtual environment (Cummings & Bailenson, 2016; Malloy & Milling, 2010).”
BackgroundActive and Passive Distraction in Children Undergoing Wound Dressings
Nilsson, S., Enskär, K., Hallqvist, C., & Kokinsky, E. (2012) · Journal of Pediatric Nursing · doi:10.1016/j.pedn.2012.06.003 · Cited by 83
Virtual reality and chronic low back pain
Tack, C. (2019) · Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology · doi:10.1080/17483107.2019.1688399 · Cited by 80
“, visual, auditory and tactile stimuli) [10].”
BackgroundWomen׳s experiences of labour pain and the role of the mind: An exploratory study
Whitburn, L. Y., Jones, L. E., Davey, M., & Small, R. E. (2014) · Midwifery · doi:10.1016/j.midw.2014.04.005 · Cited by 88
“While distraction methods have been used in various settings for pain management (Malloy and Milling, 2010), our data suggest that not focussing on the present (un-mindfulness) may set the stage for unhelpful thought processes such as catastrophising and critical self-judgment.”
MethodTrost, Z., Zielke, M. A., Guck, A., Nowlin, L., Zakhidov, D., France, C. R., & Keefe, F. J. (2015) · Pain Management · doi:10.2217/pmt.15.6 · Cited by 81
Economic analysis of implementing virtual reality therapy for pain among hospitalized patients
Delshad, S. D., Almario, C. V., Fuller, G., Luong, D. D., & Spiegel, B. M. R. (2018) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-018-0026-4 · Cited by 79
Lindner, P., Rozental, A., Jurell, A., Reuterskiöld, L., Andersson, G., Hamilton, W., Miloff, A., & Carlbring, P. (2020) · JMIR Serious Games · doi:10.2196/17807 · Cited by 71
“In VR relaxation [21] and VR pain management [36], presence is likely a mediator of intervention effects due to the inherent correlation with distraction from the outside and inside world, the mechanism through which the intervention is hypothesized to work.”
BackgroundThe Cochrane Library and procedural pain in children: an overview of reviews
Curtis, S. J., Wingert, A., & Ali, S. (2012) · Evidence-Based Child Health A Cochrane Review Journal · doi:10.1002/ebch.1864 · Cited by 80
“Sweet gum versus unsweetened gum during procedure—behavioural measures of pain Blood sampling (venipuncture or finger prick), IM injection CAS 2 (103) 0.”
MethodFurman, A. J., Thapa, T., Summers, S. J., Cavaleri, R., Fogarty, J. S., Steiner, G. Z., Schabrun, S. M., & Seminowicz, D. A. (2019) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00279.2019 · Cited by 71
Ridout, B., Kelson, J. N., Campbell, A., & Steinbeck, K. S. (2021) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/24967 · Cited by 73
“VR has been studied in the treatment of a wide range of clinical conditions, including pain management [1-3], rehabilitation [4], anxiety [5], phobias [6], and posttraumatic stress disorder [7].”
BackgroundAssessing the feasibility of implementing low-cost virtual reality therapy during routine burn care
Ford, C. G., Manegold, E. M., Randall, C. L., Aballay, A. M., & Duncan, C. L. (2018) · Burns · doi:10.1016/j.burns.2017.11.020 · Cited by 70
“[28,29] for systematic reviews), and provides additional evidence for potential analgesic benefit.”
BackgroundKwekkeboom, K. L., & Bratzke, L. C. (2015) · The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing · doi:10.1097/jcn.0000000000000274 · Cited by 70
Virtual reality as complementary pain therapy in hospitalized patients with sickle cell disease
Agrawal, A. K., Robertson, S., Litwin, L., Tringale, E., Treadwell, M. J., Hoppe, C. C., & Marsh, A. (2018) · Pediatric Blood & Cancer · doi:10.1002/pbc.27525 · Cited by 68
Collado-Mateo, D., Dominguez-Muñoz, F. J., Adsuar, J. C., Garcia-Gordillo, M. A., & Gusi, N. (2017) · Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation · doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2017.02.011 · Cited by 66
Parental Distress and Catastrophic Thoughts About Child Pain
Caes, L., Vervoort, T., Devos, P., Verlooy, J., Benoît, Y., & Goubert, L. (2013) · Clinical Journal of Pain · doi:10.1097/ajp.0000000000000028 · Cited by 70
Embodied pain—negotiating the boundaries of possible action
Tabor, A., Keogh, E., & Eccleston, C. (2017) · Pain · doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000875 · Cited by 63
“There are also studies 140 of counter-stimulation offered in competition to pain as distraction [59].”
BackgroundMazzoleni, S., Duret, C., Grosmaire, A.-G., & Battini, E. (2017) · BioMed Research International · doi:10.1155/2017/8905637 · Cited by 71
“The association of VR with robot therapy adds a “recreational” component to rehabilitation that distracts patients from fatigue and pain and motivates them to improve their performance [129].”
BackgroundMental imagery-induced attention modulates pain perception and cortical excitability
Volz, M. S., Suarez-Contreras, V., Portilla, A. S., & Fregni, F. (2015) · BMC Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/s12868-015-0146-6 · Cited by 64
“Consistent with our modest effects on pain, these effects have been confirmed by several studies [29-34].”
ResultPatients perceptions of virtual reality therapy in the management of chronic cancer pain
Garrett, B., Tao, G., Taverner, T., Cordingley, E., & Sun, C. (2020) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03916 · Cited by 63
Wong, K. P., Tse, M. Y. M., & Qin, J. (2022) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare10102047 · Cited by 70
“A systematic review was conducted by Malloy and Milling [30] in 2010 about the effects of VR distraction on chronic pain and afterwards, no summary work was conducted on the same topic.”
BackgroundMethodIlan, Y. (2020) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2020.569178 · Cited by 68
Safety of virtual reality use in children: a systematic review
Bexson, C., Oldham, G., & Wray, J. (2024) · European Journal of Pediatrics · doi:10.1007/s00431-024-05488-5 · Cited by 59
“VR creates extensive opportunities for uses in healthcare [2] and has been successfully applied in adult healthcare settings and demonstrated use cases include reducing anxiety through automated VR therapy [3], providing distraction for pain management [4, 5] and delivery of training [6, 7].”
Does virtual reality reduce pain in pediatric patients? A systematic review
Iannicelli, A. M., Vito, D., Dodaro, C. A., Matteo, P. D., Nocerino, R., Sepe, A. O., & Raia, V. (2019) · The Italian Journal of Pediatrics/Italian journal of pediatrics · doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0757-0 · Cited by 59
The biopsychosociotechnical model: a systems-based framework for human-centered health improvement
Card, A. J. (2022) · Health Systems · doi:10.1080/20476965.2022.2029584 · Cited by 79
“Virtual reality stimuli may reduce the experience of pain (Malloy & Milling, 2010) Electronic communication tools may help clinicians better meet the information needs of patients with cancer (Gonzales & Riek, 2012, Gonzales & Riek, 2013; Waljee et al., 2007) The Internet can serve as a powerful…”
BackgroundVirtual Reality-Based Mindfulness for Chronic Pain Management: A Scoping Review
O’Connor, S., Mayne, A., & Hood, B. (2022) · Pain Management Nursing · doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2022.03.013 · Cited by 62
Guo, Q., Zhang, L., Gui, C., Chen, G., Chen, Y., Tan, H., Su, W., Zhang, R., & Gao, Q. (2023) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/38256 · Cited by 65
Leroy, P. L. J. M., Costa, L. R., Emmanouil, D. E., van Beukering, A., & Franck, L. S. (2016) · Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology · doi:10.1097/aco.0000000000000312 · Cited by 58
“Other relevant recent systematic or narrative reviews can be found on the use of virtual reality [29], hypnosis [30],pain-reducing effects of sucrose in infants [31], absence of pain-reducing effects of sweet-tasting-solutions in children aged 1 to 16 years [32], and use of NPS in dental care [33–37], emergency care […”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Malloy, K. M., & Milling, L. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Hartford (US)
- Corresponding author
- Milling, Leonard S.
- ORCID
- Milling, Leonard S.
- Venue
- Clinical Psychology Review
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-12
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1011-1018
- ISSN
- 0272-7358 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2164662311
- Cited by
- 653
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 44 · 2025: 72 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 75 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 2.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Clinical Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pediatric Pain Management Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
- Keywords
- virtual reality, distraction therapy, analgesia, experimental pain, immersion, pain management
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Burns, Humans, Injections, Pain, Research, User-Computer Interface, Treatment Outcome, Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic, Pain Management
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