Extended Reality for Chronic Pain Relief

Abstract

Chronic pain is ongoing pain lasting for long periods of time after the initial injury or disease has healed. Chronic pain is difficult to treat and can affect the daily lives of patients. Distraction therapy is a proven way of relieving pain by redirecting the focus of patients’ attention. Virtual reality is an effective platform for distraction therapy as it immerses the user visually, aurally, and even somewhat physically in a virtual world detached from reality. There is little research done on the effects that physical interactions have on pain management. This project aims to evaluate different types of extended reality (XR) interactions, including full body movement, for chronic pain patients to determine which is the best for pain relief. We are building a prototype for participants to interact both mentally and physically and measuring the reduction in subjective pain ratings at various points of the XR experience.