scholarly journals The Effect of Virtual Reality Guided Meditation for Chronic Pain on Brain Activity Using EEG (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Fu ◽  
Bernie Garrett ◽  
Gordon Tao ◽  
Elliott Cordingley ◽  
Zahra Ofoghi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Power Level ◽  
P Value ◽  
Transform Method ◽  
Topographic Analysis ◽  
Meditation Experience ◽  
Post Condition

BACKGROUND Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has shown some evidence of efficacy in the management of chronic pain. More recently virtual reality (VR) guided meditation has been used as a technique to assist MBSR. A number of studies have also explored changes in the brain during mindfulness meditation practices, but not with use of electroencephalograph (EEG) during VR guided meditation. OBJECTIVE This pilot study explored the potential for recording and analyzing EEG during VR-experiences, and how the power of EEG wave forms, topographic mapping and coherence measures altered during a VR-guided meditation experience in participants with chronic pain associated with a cancer diagnosis METHODS Ten adult cancer chronic pain patients underwent an experimental VR-guided meditation experience whilst EEG signals were recorded during the session using a BioSemi ActiveTwo system with 64 channels in a standard 10-20 configuration. The experimental EEG recording session consisted of a resting condition (pre), three VR-guided meditation conditions (med), and a final rest condition (post) and lasted for approximately one hour in total for each participant. The EEG data collected was preprocessed to remove noise and artifacts. Power spectral density (PSD) was computed over the 50 conditions utilizing the Fast Fourier Transform method, and a topographic analysis, including coherence exploration, was undertaken. Additionally, exploratory statistical analysis for possible correlations between pain scores and EEG signal power were undertaken. RESULTS The greatest power variations between the resting and meditation conditions straddled the conventional frequency bands and had distinct onset and offset boundaries. Power in the 6-11 Hz range exhibited a difference between the Pre and Med conditions and the Post condition. In the 11-21 Hz range, power in the Pre condition was lower than Med and Post. In the 21-55 Hz range, the Med condition had the highest power level, while the Post condition had the lowest. Topographically, several peak channels emerged in the data (FCz, Oz, POz, CP5 and CP6. Coherence variations arose between the three peak channel pairs of interest (FCz and POz, FCz and Oz, CP5 and CP6). A repeated measures correlation analysis, for pain and EEG power for FCz, CP5 and CP6 showed a P-value close to 0.05 all in the 11-21 Hz frequency ranges. CONCLUSIONS This pilot study on the effect of VR-guided meditation, demonstrates the feasibility of EEG recording and subsequent data processing/analysis during VR meditative experiences. Alterations in power and coherence, mainly in 6-11 Hz and 11-21 Hz alpha-theta bandwidths were identified. Topographically, a relative decrease in the 21-55 Hz (gamma bandwidth) in the Post condition compared to the Pre condition occurred in the central-parietal regions accompanied by a change in coherence. These findings suggest that distinct altered neurophysiological brain’s signals during VR-guided meditation are detectable. CLINICALTRIAL clinicaltrials.gov: NCT 02995434

scholarly journals A Pilot Study of the Impact of Repeated Sessions of Virtual Reality on Chronic Neuropathic Pain

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Jones ◽  
Rebecca Skadberg ◽  
Todd Moore
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Chronic Neuropathic Pain ◽  
Weekly Basis ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Chronic Pain Conditions ◽  
The Impact

OBJECTIVE: The use of virtual reality (VR) for pain has numerous studies showing effectiveness. However, there has been limited study of its use for chronic pain. METHODOLGY: This pilot study (N=10) investigated the impact of repeated sessions of a VR application for chronic pain on ten subjects. Impact on pain as well as on psychological variables such as depression, anxiety, catastrophizing, and sense of control over pain was assessed. Subjects underwent three twenty minute sessions of the VR application Cool! on a weekly basis using an Oculus Rift or Vive. The impact of the sessions on pain was assessed at four intervals and psychological data captured at two intervals. RESULTS: Results indicate that the VR sessions provided significant pain relief in all treatment sessions with an average of a 66% reduction in pain during the VR session and a 45% reduction in pain immediately after the session. A decrease in pain was reported to last an average of 30 hours after the session. There appeared to be limited if any impact of the VR intervention on chronic pain levels across time. There was no significant impact found for the VR intervention on depression, anxiety, catastrophizing and sense of control over pain. CONCLUSION: Implications for the use of VR on chronic pain conditions are discussed. More frequent VR interventions for chronic pain may be needed to impact pain across time. In addition, VR applications might not be used as an interventional-type in-office treatment as done here but perhaps need to have a skill teaching component or be an application available for in-home and more frequent use.

scholarly journals Effects of dry and traditional bed bathing on respiratory parameters: a randomized pilot study

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luana Vieira Toledo ◽  
Patrícia de Oliveira Salgado ◽  
Cristiane Chaves de Souza ◽  
Lídia Miranda Brinati ◽  
Carla de Fátima Januário ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Respiratory Rate ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Arterial Oxygen Saturation ◽  
Arterial Oxygen ◽  
P Value ◽  
Open Crossover ◽  
Respiratory Parameters ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Negative Effect

Objective: to compare the time for performance of dry and traditional bed bathing and its effects on transcutaneous arterial oxygen saturation and respiratory rates in critical adult patients. Method: pilot study of a randomized, open, crossover clinical trial, performed with 15 adult critically ill patients. Each patient received a dry and a traditional bed bath. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used, adopting p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: most patients were male (73.3%), white (66.7%), with a mean age of 69.7 years. The dry bath was faster (20.0 minutes) than the traditional bath (30.0 minutes) (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between the patients’ saturation means between baths (p=0.381), with 94.7% for the dry bath and 95.2% for the traditional bath. During the traditional bath, the patients’ respiratory rate mean was higher (24.2 incursions per minute) and statistically different (p<0.001) from the value obtained for the dry bath (20.5 incursions per minute). Conclusion: the dry bath had a shorter duration than did the traditional bath, resulting in less patient exposure. The traditional bed bath had a negative effect on patients’ respiratory rate, increasing it. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (ReBEC): RBR-5qwkqd

scholarly journals Pre-Exposure Cybersickness Assessment Within a Chronic Pain Population in Virtual Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Brown ◽  
Wendy Powell
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Symptom Reporting ◽  
Simulator Sickness ◽  
Post Exposure ◽  
Chronic Pain Patients ◽  
Zero Baseline ◽  
Pain Patients

Virtual Reality (VR) is being increasingly explored as an adjunctive therapy for distraction from symptoms of chronic pain. However, using VR often causes cybersickness; a condition with symptoms similar to those of motion and simulator sickness. Cybersickness is commonly assessed using self-report questionnaires, such as the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), and is traditionally conducted post-exposure. It’s usually safe to assume a zero baseline of cybersickness as participants are not anticipated to be exhibiting any sickness symptoms pre-exposure. However, amongst populations such as chronic pain patients, it’s not unusual to experience symptoms of their condition or medication which could have a confounding influence on cybersickness symptom reporting. Therefore, in population groups where illness and medication use is common, assuming baseline is not necessarily desirable. This study aimed to investigate cybersickness baseline recordings amongst a chronic pain population, and highlights how deviations from an assumed baseline may incorrectly infer adverse effects arising from VR exposure. A repeated measures study design was used, in which twelve participants were assessed pre and post VR exposure via SSQ. Significant differences were found between actual and assumed pre-exposure baseline scores. Furthermore, we found significant differences between actual and assumed increases in cybersickness scores from baseline to post exposure. This study highlights that clinical sub-populations cannot be assumed to have a zero baseline SSQ score, and this should be taken into consideration when evaluating the usability of VR systems or interventions for participants from different demographics.

Quantitative Sensory Testing in Animal Models of Chronic Pain: A Pilot Study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Monteiro ◽  
M. Moreau ◽  
C. Otis ◽  
L. De Lorimier ◽  
J. Pelletier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Quantitative Sensory Testing ◽  
Sensory Testing

scholarly journals Smart Health System to Detect Dementia Disorders Using Virtual Reality

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 810
Author(s):  
Areej Y. Bayahya ◽  
Wadee Alhalabi ◽  
Sultan H. AlAmri
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Clinical Diagnosis ◽  
Kappa Statistic ◽  
Weighted Kappa ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
P Value ◽  
Functional Evaluation ◽  
Medical Specialties ◽  
Weighted Kappa Statistic ◽  
Smart Health

Smart health technology includes physical sensors, intelligent sensors, and output advice to help monitor patients’ health and adjust their behavior. Virtual reality (VR) plays an increasingly larger role to improve health outcomes, being used in a variety of medical specialties including robotic surgery, diagnosis of some difficult diseases, and virtual reality pain distraction for severe burn patients. Smart VR health technology acts as a decision support system in the diseases diagnostic test of patients as they perform real world tasks in virtual reality (e.g., navigation). In this study, a non-invasive, cognitive computerized test based on 3D virtual environments for detecting the main symptoms of dementia (memory loss, visuospatial defects, and spatial navigation) is proposed. In a recent study, the system was tested on 115 real patients of which thirty had a dementia, sixty-five were cognitively healthy, and twenty had a mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The performance of the VR system was compared with Mini-Cog test, where the latter is used to measure cognitive impaired patients in the traditional diagnosis system at the clinic. It was observed that visuospatial and memory recall scores in both clinical diagnosis and VR system of dementia patients were less than those of MCI patients, and the scores of MCI patients were less than those of the control group. Furthermore, there is a perfect agreement between the standard methods in functional evaluation and navigational ability in our system where P-value in weighted Kappa statistic= 100% and between Mini-Cog-clinical diagnosis vs. VR scores where P-value in weighted Kappa statistic= 93%.

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