The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality as a Non-Pharmacological Intervention to Reduce Pain During Medical Procedures Among Adults: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this review is to identify the effectiveness of VR as a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce pain among adult patients during medical procedures. Background: Managing pain during medical procedures is important for both patients and caregivers in providing high quality care as well as patient satisfaction. Using non-pharmacological analgesics is highly recommended due to the relative lack of side effects compared to traditional pharmacological analgesics, which can cause several side effects such as constipation, nausea, or cognitive dysfunction. These concerns, along with the associated risk of addiction, have led to limiting the use of opioids for analgesia. This review focused on using VR as a distraction method, which can be used alone or in addition to pharmacologic analgesia to reduce adult patients’ perceived pain during medical procedures. Methods: An integrative literature review was completed via a comprehensive and systematic search performed using online electronic databases, including CINAHL, PubMed, and PsycINFO via OvidSP. After the search and selection process was complete, the literature was categorized as either experimental studies of healthy participants or studies of patients undergoing various medical procedures in clinical settings. Results: Three pain components are measured while using VR in both experimental and clinical studies. These include the sensory (the intensity of pain), affective (unpleasant pain), and cognitive (time spent thinking about pain) components of pain. The amount of ‘fun’ experienced was also measured. This review suggests that the VR condition can reduce all three pain components when compared with the no VR condition, and the amount of fun experienced was increased in the VR condition. Conclusion: This paper seeks to identify the effectiveness of VR as a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce pain among adult patients during medical procedures.