PMID- 37546872
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20240325
DP  - 2023 Jul 27
TI  - The Effects of Virtual Reality Neuroscience-based Therapy on Clinical and 
      Neuroimaging Outcomes in Patients with Chronic Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical 
      Trial.
LID - 2023.07.24.23293109 [pii]
LID - 10.1101/2023.07.24.23293109 [doi]
AB  - Chronic pain remains poorly managed. The integration of innovative immersive 
      technologies (i.e., virtual reality (VR)) with recent neuroscience-based 
      principles that position the brain as the key organ of chronic pain may provide a 
      more effective pain treatment than traditional behavioral therapies. By targeting 
      cognitive and affective processes that maintain pain and potentially directly 
      changing neurobiological circuits associated with pain chronification and 
      amplification, VR-based pain treatment has the potential for significant and 
      long-lasting pain relief. We tested the effectiveness of a novel VR 
      neuroscience-based therapy (VRNT) to improve pain-related outcomes in n = 31 
      participants with chronic back pain, evaluated against usual care (n = 30) in a 
      2-arm randomized clinical trial ( NCT04468074) . We also conducted pre- and 
      post-treatment MRI to test whether VRNT affects brain networks previously linked 
      to chronic pain and treatment effects. Compared to the control condition, VRNT 
      led to significantly reduced pain intensity (g = 0.63) and pain interference (g = 
      0.84) at post-treatment vs. pre-treatment, with effects persisting at 2-week 
      follow-up. The improvements were partially mediated by reduced kinesiophobia and 
      pain catastrophizing. Several secondary clinical outcomes were also improved, 
      including disability, quality of life, sleep, and fatigue. In addition, VRNT was 
      associated with modest increases in functional connectivity of the somatomotor 
      and default mode networks and decreased white matter fractional anisotropy in the 
      corpus callosum adjacent to anterior cingula, relative to the control condition. 
      This, VRNT showed preliminary efficacy in significantly reducing pain and 
      improving overall functioning, possibly via changes in somatosensory and 
      prefrontal brain networks.
FAU - Ceko, Marta
AU  - Ceko M
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-8679-8145
FAU - Baeuerle, Tassilo
AU  - Baeuerle T
FAU - Webster, Lynn
AU  - Webster L
FAU - Wager, Tor D
AU  - Wager TD
FAU - Lumley, Mark A
AU  - Lumley MA
LA  - eng
PT  - Preprint
DEP - 20230727
PL  - United States
TA  - medRxiv
JT  - medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
JID - 101767986
UIN - Pain. 2024 Mar 8;:. PMID: 38466872
PMC - PMC10402228
EDAT- 2023/08/07 06:42
MHDA- 2023/08/07 06:43
PMCR- 2023/08/04
CRDT- 2023/08/07 04:44
PHST- 2023/08/07 06:43 [medline]
PHST- 2023/08/07 06:42 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/08/07 04:44 [entrez]
PHST- 2023/08/04 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 2023.07.24.23293109 [pii]
AID - 10.1101/2023.07.24.23293109 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - medRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Jul 27:2023.07.24.23293109. doi: 
      10.1101/2023.07.24.23293109.