Disclosures: David Tomajan, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To investigate the use of virtual reality (VR) combined with guided meditation in decreasing pain levels in the outpatient setting.

Design: Case Series Setting : Outpatient office Participants : 26 voluntary veteran subjects

Interventions: Patients from the VA outpatient setting were given a survey assessing their current pain level. The subject was brought into a quiet, isolated room and fitted with a VR headset. They chose from 1 of 6 VR environments and the subject was underwent a guided 10-minute guided meditation VR session. After the intervention, pain scores were reassessed using the same scale.

Main Outcome Measures: Pain numerical rating scale; rated from 0 to 10

Results: 26 participants completed the study. 2 subjects were excluded as their initial pain levels were zero. Statistical analysis was performed using a one-tailed paired T-test to compare pre-intervention versus post-intervention pain scores. The average pain level pre-VR was 5.85 and post-VR was 4.58 (p=0.00007). Conclusions: Our study suggests that VR combined with meditation is a safe and effective intervention for improving pain scores. The subjects had a statistically significant decrease in pain scores. VR has minimal adverse effects and may function as an adjunctive therapy for treating chronic pain in complex patients.

Level of Evidence: Level IV

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-use-of-virtual-reality-combined-with-guided-meditation-on-pain-in-the-outpatient-veterans-affairs-population-a-case-series/