How VR Therapy Help with Pain Management in Chronic Pain?
Pain can be the result of a medical procedure or injury, however, when pain stays with you after the healing of the wound, it is concerning. This could be chronic pain and it is crucial to give attention to it.
What is Chronic Pain?
Pain is part of regular life, and could have many reasons, but when it stays with you for longer than 12 weeks it needs your attention. Our bodies use sudden pain as a warning system to let us know when we have been injured.
Pain alerts the brain to an injury when it occurs, and we check the injured body part to assess the situation. The pain subsides as soon as the wound is healed. However, chronic pain is distinct, and even after healing, your brain continues to receive signals about pain. This could last for a few weeks or years.
Additionally, chronic pain can impair your flexibility, strength, and endurance while also limiting your mobility. It might be difficult to complete daily tasks and activities as a result. This is characterized as suffering from pain for at least a year. The affected areas may experience burning or aching pain that can be either sharp or dull.
Therefore, it is important to understand the causes and importance of chronic pain treatment.
Causes of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain can occasionally be linked to a specific cause. You may have a chronic illness that causes chronic pain, such as arthritis or cancer. Your body's responses and physiology change as a result of injuries and diseases, and you become more sensitive to pain.
These changes may last long after you have recovered from the initial injury or disease. Chronic pain can result from a sprain, a broken bone, or a brief infection.
Some people suffer from chronic pain that is unrelated to an injury or physical illness. It is caused by a variety of psychological factors, including stress, anxiety, and depression. Many scientists believe this link stems from low endorphin levels in the blood. It is possible for several causes of pain to coexist.
Types of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain can take many different forms and manifest itself all over your body. The following are examples of common types of chronic pain:
- Arthritis or joint pain
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Cancer pain around the tumor
- Headaches, like migraines
- Testicular pain
- Scar tissue pain.
- Fibromyalgia Muscle pain
- Neurogenic pain
The patient may experience different kinds of sensations and pain with chronic pain such as aching, burning sensation, shooting pain, muscle squeezing, muscle stiffness, stinging, and throbbing. In addition to that, chronic pain can also lead to some mental conditions such as anxiety, depression, extreme fatigue, or feeling overly tired most of the time, disturbed sleeping patterns, and mood swings.
Pain Management with VR
Virtual reality is a powerful tool in chronic pain relief that is an excellent complement to conventional treatments. The complexity of pain management varies, but the underlying idea remains the same.
The nerves that cause the discomfort are first identified, and then the appropriate treatment is done. A sequence of pharmacological, muscle, or nerve therapies may be used in more sophisticated operations.
Meanwhile, VR has been shown to have healing qualities, reducing the need for medicine.
VR for pain management is in use for quite some time and delivering very good results. The underlying principle is to first identify the nerves that are causing the pain and then apply the appropriate treatment.
This may involve a sequence of pharmacological, muscle, or nerve therapies. The beauty of VR is that it can reduce the need for medication, and act as a complement to conventional treatments.
Clinicians have long used cognitive distraction approaches to treat various types of pain. By providing a variety of interactive activities, VR for Chronic pain is more effective due to its distraction strategy. It has many VR scenarios and is set in a simulated world and features several interactive elements.
Some apps provide therapeutic virtual reality for burn victims, there are even more advanced methods for controlling limb pain. Furthermore, virtual reality (VR) is a drug-free pain management option that can be used in both clinical and non-clinical settings.
Apart from pain management, it has many other uses. It is very good at reducing stress and uplifts your mood. Other than that VR rehab therapy is a good way for faster and better recovery. In addition to that it can be clubbed with other technologies and deliver digital therapy where doctors can monitor the condition of the patient.
Conclusion
Several dialogues and discussions have taken place regarding the use of virtual reality in the healthcare industry, with numerous virtual reality apps already in use. Robotic surgery, healthcare equipment, and other applications are gradually gaining popularity, and they are more likely to be adopted by many healthcare organizations and accepted by the general public. Healthcare is one of virtual reality's most enthusiastic users, with applications ranging from robotic surgery to phobia therapy, surgery simulation, and skill training, to name a few.
However, the use of VR in pain management is amazing because it reduces the need for medications. Furthermore, it can assist the patient throughout the entire healing and recovery process, including managing pain.
If the roles and benefits of VR have completely blown your mind, and you wanted to know more about this amazing tool; feel free to reach out to Cognihab. We are a leading techno-medical company providing different kinds of VR suites to address healthcare needs.
