I just read a super interesting article about how scientists have started using VR headsets to help people with Chronic Pain. So if you know anyone with chronic pain, make sure you share this with them!
In the study, they gave people VR headsets and showed them images of different scenes in nature. Lakes, mountains, waterfalls, that kind of cool stuff.
The subtitle of the article was “Pain Relief Without Pills”, because the VR was as effective as painkillers! Pretty amazing. According to the researchers, they found ” that nature VR had an effect similar to that of painkillers, which endured for at least five minutes after the VR experience had ended.”
This section of the article was the most remarkable to me:
“participants underwent MRI brain scans at the University of Exeter’s Mireille Gillings Neuroimaging Centre. Researchers administered a cold gel to illicit a type of ongoing pain and then scanned participants to study how their brains respond. The researchers found that the immersive VR experience significantly reduced the development and spread of feelings of pain sensitivity to pricking stimuli, and these pain-reducing effects were still there even at the end of the 45-minute experience.“
To read the article click this link.
Journal Reference:
- Sonia Medina, Sam W. Hughes. Immersion in nature through virtual reality attenuates the development and spread of mechanical secondary hyperalgesia: a role for insulo-thalamic effective connectivity. Pain, 2025; DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003701
