Virtual Reality for Fibromyalgia

Overview

Fibromyalgia is a frequent chronic pain syndrome almost often affecting women and associating diffuse chronic musculoskeletal pain (for more than 3 months), fatigue and sleep disturbances. Other varied functional symptoms are associated with it, in particular cognitive disorders and a feeling of unrested awakening. Technological advances in virtual reality have led to recognition by the medical community as a way to improve pain and quality of life for patients. There is a growing body of evidence supporting the use of virtual reality as an adjunct therapy to reduce acute pain in patients during medical procedures in hospital settings. There may also be a role for virtual reality in patients with chronic pain.

Current treatments for fibromyalgia (FM) include pharmaceutical pain medications as well as psychological programs with components of cognitive therapy, and activity management. However, pain medications are not fully effective, can be addictive, and can cause hyperalgesia. Non-pharmacological treatments for chronic pain may be associated with limiting side effects, technology-based interventions using virtual reality (VR) may be a promising alternative treatment option. There is evidence which shows that VR can be an effective treatment for pain reduction. However, most studies which utilize VR as a method of pain reduction focus on acute pain and studies looking at VR for chronic pain are scarce. Investigator will analyze the pain reduction and impact on behavioral mechanisms and cognition with repetitive active VR on Fibromyalgia

Conditions

Eligibility