Medstar Health Research Institute
Patients living with cancer commonly have chronic pain due to the disease or to cancer treatments. Virtual reality, a new technology that immerses the user in pleasant, diverting, and exciting virtual environments, may lower chronic cancer pain to improve quality of life and complement need for pain medications like opioids. The investigators aim to learn from patients about the experience of cancer pain, develop a virtual reality prototype specific to cancer pain management, and test the feasibility and acceptability of this technology to improve the cancer pain experience.
Patients living with cancer commonly experience chronic pain, defined as pain lasting at least three months. While cancer pain management has traditionally focused on pharmacologic therapies, particularly opioids, pain experts, clinical guidelines, and patients living with cancer increasingly support the use of non-pharmacologic therapies (including mind-body modalities such as distraction, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy) to mitigate pain and potentially reduce pain medication needs. Virtual reality (VR), a rapidly evolving technology that immerses the user in pleasant, virtual…
Inclusion Criteria: * age ≥18 years old * living with active cancer diagnosis (any solid tumor type) * report chronic cancer pain (≥3 months) with baseline severity moderate-severe (i.e., self-report pain score (SRPS) ≥4/10, where 0=no pain, 10=worst pain) * prescribed chronic opioid therapies (may be long-acting formulations, short-acting formulations, or both) Exclusion Criteria: * history of intractable nausea/vomiting, motion sickness, seizures/epilepsy, and/or cranial structure abnormalities preventing VR headset use * moderate-severe pain of non-cancer etiology (e.g., chronic lumbago)…
DISCOVR virtual reality pain therapy
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