Virtual Reality Graded Exposure Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Pilot Study

Nielsen, Anders Viborg ; Fæster, Christian

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2018

2018-05-28

51 pages

Context: Chronic low back pain is a major cause of disability in the world. As most cases have no pathological cause, methods have traditionally been focused on graded exposure therapy and exercise. These methods however, are costly in terms of manpower, have unclear time spans, and are often associated with high patient attrition. Objectives: With the advent of affordable high performance virtual reality system, we investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a virtual reality game for treatment of chronic low back pain. Methods: We used graded activity, biofeedback, and gamification principles to create a virtual reality dodgeball game where patients have to pick up balls and hit enemies. We create a full body tracking solution such that we can tailor the game to the individual patients range of motion. The game is further created with feedback from an expert in pain rehabilitation. Results: The game is tested with experts, patients, and a healthy sample. The experts were interviewed on feasibility and usability, patients on acceptability, and healthy participants on general usability. The findings showed that the game in a clinic setting was very feasible, and patients were high encouraged by the game, and moving more than baseline. Conclusion: We found that the game could be used in a clinic setting, and patients are very willing to play as well as finding it fun, while not increasing or decreasing back pain, and provides suggestions for future improvements.

low back pain ; pain ; virtual reality ; feasibility ; rehabilitation ; pilot study

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