The Analgesic Effects of Opioids and Immersive Virtual Reality Distraction: Evidence from Subjective and Functional Brain Imaging Assessments

Abstract

These subjective pain reports and objective functional magnetic resonance imaging results demonstrate converging evidence for the analgesic efficacy of opioid administration alone and VR distraction alone. Furthermore, patterns of pain-related brain activity support the significant subjective analgesic effects of VR distraction when used as an adjunct to opioid analgesia. These results provide preliminary data to support the clinical use of multimodal (e.g., combined pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic) analgesic techniques.