Virtual Reality To Be Used as a Painkiller in Emergency Rooms
Virtual Reality is very often used by enthusiasts of such technology to escape the "actual reality" or to dive into sees they never swam or to venerate mountains they never climbed. Or, why not, watching porn or playing games. But what if virtual reality would enter emergency rooms to take patients pain and anxiety away from their mind while being treated.
A group of graduate students from France implemented a program using virtual reality technology to replace the use of painkillers and help patients relax when being in an emergency room. St Joseph's Hospital, France hosted the innovative experiment in which patients could wonder around beautiful landscapes in Japan and visit Zen gardens while their dislocated shoulder would be treated at the same time.
"(It) enables us to offer patients a technique to distract their attention and curb their pain and anxiety when being treated in the emergency room...I think in 10 years, virtual reality won't even be a question anymore, and will be used in hospitals routinely"
Dr. Olivier Ganasia, head of the hospital's ER department
Such type of "modern hypnosis" is not something new in the medical environment as it is already studied the "distraction effect" that VR can have on people being on the dentists chair or to combat "phantom pain".
Being in an experimental phase though it is premature to state that such use of VR might replace placebo pills or painkillers yet, but there is hope for its use in such circumstances in the future and researchers have discovered that it might also reprogram the way the nervous system is responding to pain stimulus.
Having in mind that I "lye myself" for months that tomorrow I will make my dentist appointment I might suggest to her to distract my attention from her buzzy tools with some nice landscapes and why not relaxing music the next time. Is that phantom pain that keeps me away from her medical office.
What do you think about the use of VR in emergency rooms and other medical facilities as a pain killer, placebo pill or "hypnosis technique"?
Reference: https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/11/french-hospital-using-vr-drug-free-pain-solution/
I can't imagine the benifits for pain relief, but this is absolutely a great idea for claustrofobics who have to lay still inside an MRI scanner for an hour without panicking.
The claustrophobia use case is another good idea for its use. Regarding its use as a painkiller it actually takes away your attention from pain, the bearable one, when on some simple medical procedures to feel it less.