A study at a childrens hospital in Atlanta is looking at virtual reality as a form of distraction therapy for children undergoing chemotherapy.
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The hypothesis is that once patients become immersed within a virtual environment, they have fewer resources to focus on the procedure that is happening to them. "Virtual reality is such an immersive technology that you are present 360 degrees in this virtual world," said Barbara Rothbaum, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Emory University Medical School. "The children are so involved in the game and the virtual environment that it takes their mind off the treatments."
The casecontrol study was launched at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta last May and is examining approximately 50 pediatric cancer patients between the ages of 8 and 18 undergoing chemotherapy via a central venous access device.
Children typically experience high levels of anxiety before and during their chemotherapy treatments as well as pain during the procedure, said Jonathan Gershon, research coordinator for the project. "Sometimes, even the sight of the nurse setting up the equipment can cause anxiety in the children," he said.
In virtual reality, a user interacts with a computer-generated three-dimensional world through a head-mounted display, stereo earphones, and a position sensor that resembles a joystick. For this study, Rothbaums colleague Larry Hodges, Ph.D., consulted with Zoo Atlanta to develop a virtual reality environment that takes the user on a tour of a gorilla habitat.
While the children are interacting with the virtual reality environment, members of the research staff monitor the childs heart rate and measure verbal and nonverbal signs of distress and pain. Anxiety levels are measured before, during, and after the procedure using a standard psychological scale.
So far, the virtual reality has gotten a positive response from everyone. "The kids like it because its fun, parents like it because it distracts their children from the procedure, and the staff likes it because the children are more compliant," Rothbaum said.
Rothbaum, a psychologist who specializes in anxiety disorders, has been working with virtual reality since 1993. While the best-studied use of virtual reality in mental health is in treating phobias, distracting patients as they get painful medical treatment is a promising area just now being explored. Virtual reality also has shown promise in reducing pain in pediatric burn patients.
The researchers would like to make the virtual reality project available to more children if it is shown to be an effective therapy. "These children go though some very difficult procedures and if we could help make the treatments more tolerable for the children, then I think weve accomplished something," said Gershon.
Future research goals also include extending the use of virtual reality to other painful procedures, such as spinal taps and bone marrow aspirations, to see if it could help reduce the amount of medication needed during the procedures. "Virtual reality shows the most benefit for moderately painful, anxiety-producing procedures rather than extremely painful, anxiety-producing procedures," said Gershon.
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