New experimental virtual reality (VR) applications are starting to be developed within rehabilitation settings to help people treat pain and anxiety.

• Researchers from Ohio University developed a virtual dodgeball intervention designed to elicit graded increases in lumbar spine flexion while reducing expectations of fear and harm.
• The University of Washington Medicine Regional Burn Center at Harborview in Seattle has used VR therapy for distracting burn patients from excessive pain during wound care.
• Bloomberg recently published coverage on the effects that virtual reality has on Alzheimer’s and chronic pain.

There’s a lot more research needed before VR is going to be widely accepted as a pain relief method. Brennan Spiegel, a gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai who’s also director of health services research at the Los Angeles hospital, is about to begin a study on many more patients.