A new study published in the European Journal of Pain shows that inducing a virtual ‘out of body experience’ can significantly reduce the intensity of chronic pain.
An ‘out of body experience’ could help people suffering from chronic pain.
Chronic pain – pain that persists for at least three months – is a growing societal concern that warrants scientific investigation.
A recent large-scale survey found that 19% of adults reported suffering from chronic pain and the authors believe their research demonstrates that full body illusions could potentially be used to aid pain management.
“Full body illusions induce a feeling of ownership for a virtual body and a feeling that one’s self is located outside of one’s own body,” said co-author Dr. Jane Aspell, a neuroscientist at Anglia Ruskin University.
“We wanted to test whether this illusion would reduce the intensity of chronic pain in participants, as similar body illusions have previously been shown to have a range of effects on the body’s physiology.”
Participants suffering from a range of long-term chronic pain conditions (including sciatica, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, muscular pain, IBS and back pain) took part in an experiment which created a full body illusion, causing them to disassociate themselves from their bodies.
The participants viewed their own ‘virtual’ bodies for two minutes through virtual reality goggles, while their backs were stroked.
The video images were fed to the goggles by a camera placed 5 feet (1.5 m) behind them.
Afterwards, illusion strength and pain intensity were measured, and the authors found that when the illusions were experienced by patients with chronic pain, their pain intensity was reduced by an average of 37%.
“The reduction in pain experienced by our participants was significant, with pain intensity reducing by an average of 37% when the video feed seen by the participants was live, compared to recorded,” explained co-author James Pamment, a psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University.
“This reduction arguably constitutes a clinically useful analgesic effect.”
“The findings add support to theories that high-level multisensory body representations can interact with homeostatic regulation and pain perception,” the scientists concluded.
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J. Pamment & J.E. Aspell. Putting pain out of mind with an ‘out of body’ illusion. European Journal of Pain, published online August 10, 2016; doi: 10.1002/ejp.927
