Stepping into virtual reality may soon be a way for patients dealing with chronic back pain and fibromyalgia to find relief. Applied VR, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality company, recently announced that one of its headsets received Breakthrough Device Designation from the Food and Drug Administration for treating patients with certain pain conditions.
The EaseVRx is the first virtual reality device to earn this designation from the FDA for treating a chronic pain condition. This designation will make it easier for the development and review of virtual reality devices to help treat chronic pain conditions, and it could also make it more likely that VR therapy to treat chronic pain will soon be covered by insurance.
“AppliedVR is the most evidence-backed VR platform on the market, and today’s FDA designation demonstrates that health experts across the spectrum recognize the therapeutic potential of VR as a viable treatment for pain,” Matthew Stoudt, CEO and co-founder of AppliedVR, said in a statement. “Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupting Americans’ ability to get in-person care safely, we’re looking forward to getting EaseVRx into the hands of people suffering from pain. Providers believe in it, patients want it, and payers are coming around to it.”
How It Works
Patients in the recent clinical trial were asked to wear the headset and watch at least one virtual reality program each day for a period of 21 days. The programs were designed to immerse the user into a virtual environment where they could take in beautiful scenery or even swim with dolphins. The goal behind the program is to help train the brain to focus on what’s going on around a person instead of focusing on chronic pain signals.
At the end of the three-week study, 84 percent of patients reported that they were satisfied with their VR therapy, and on average, pain intensity decreased 30 percent. Patients also reported an improvement in mood, sleep and stress levels, which all play a role in the expression and interpretation of chronic pain.
“Virtual reality is a promising skills-based behavioral medicine that has been shown to have high patient engagement and satisfaction,” said Beth Darnall, PhD, AppliedVR’s chief science advisor. “However, chronic pain patients to date have had very limited access to it, so we’re excited to continue working with the FDA to develop our platform and get it into the market faster.”
We’ve written about virtual reality treatments for chronic pain in the past, but we’re especially excited about this news because it seems like a big step in the right direction. Hopefully they continue to have success with this treatment and more people can find ways to treat or relieve symptoms of their chronic pain.