Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/yz3F48H3Qpo   Immersion in 360 virtual reality scenes of the frozen Arctic helps those exposed to painful stimuli cope with both the acute and continuing pain.  Surgical investigators from London’s Imperial College report these findings from a preliminary study of 15 participants.   Acute pain was produced by a small electric shock.  Continuing pain at the same site was triggered by capsaicin, the burning chemical in chill peppers.  Watching frozen ocean water and enormous icebergs suppressed both acute and chronic pain sensations.  Photos of the same scenes were ineffective.   Other experiments show that VR can successfully reduce dental pain.  These current experiments will be expanded in hopes of developing reliable, non-drug pain suppression techniques.   Sam W. Hughes, Hongyan Zhao, Edouard J. Auvinet, Paul H. Strutton. Attenuation of capsaicin-induced ongoing pain and secondary hyperalgesia during exposure to an immersive virtual reality environment. PAIN Reports, 2019; 1 DOI: