None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This project aims to determine the impact of Experiential Immersive Education (iED) delivered via Virtual Reality for people with chronic pain. The project will examine the extent and nature of altered pain beliefs and attitudes after the iED treatment, and will explore perceptions of acceptability and utility. Objectives: 1. To quantify change in pain attitudes and beliefs following iED, relative to a weight-list, and minimal intervention control. 2. To establish iED feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy 3. To explore potential mechanism of effect We hypothesise, that: 1. iED will lead to greater positive changes in pain beliefs and attitudes, than either control groups 2. iED will appear feasible, acceptable, and effective; and 3. Improvements in pain and disability will be mediated by fear of pain, pain catastrophising, and self-efficacy.
Interventions
A three-arm experimental randomised control trial, using mixed method approaches.
1. Experiential Immersive Education (iED): Participants randomly allocated to the intervention group will undertake six therapist-led, 1-hour Virtual Reality sessions over 6-week period.
Sessions: One session per week for six weeks (6 in total)
Session Duration: 1 hour involving 20mins of Virtual Reality and 40 min of clinician guided reflection and workbook completion.
VR Treatment Content: the software protocol
A three-arm experimental randomised control trial, using mixed method approaches. 1. Experiential Immersive Education (iED): Participants randomly allocated to the intervention group will undertake six therapist-led, 1-hour Virtual Reality sessions over 6-week period. Sessions: One session per week for six weeks (6 in total) Session Duration: 1 hour involving 20mins of Virtual Reality and 40 min of clinician guided reflection and workbook completion. VR Treatment Content: the software protocol has been developed by company Reality Health. There are four modules: Understanding Pain, Retrain your body, Retrain your brain, Rehab. Each module involves pain system education and immersive experiences to demonstrate how the pain system works. Workbook Content: designed specifically for this study, it repeats key messages from each VR education session and a self-management activity such as: goal setting, developing a home movement program, reflecting on learnings in the VR session. It also contains further self-directed resources related to pain management (e.g. videos, online pain mx programs). Location: The sessions will be conducted in a community health clinic and facilitated by an allied health clinician experienced in pain management therapy. Adherence to the intervention will be recorded by a session attendance checklist. 2. Minimal Intervention Control: This intervention involves novel pain education books which engage patients in a new understanding of pain through metaphors and visual illusions. Sessions: A four week period to read two pain education books and complete a workbook. Session duration: No specific time limit provided, participants work through at own pace. Location: In own home environment Book Content: a) Painful yarns : metaphors & stories to help understand the biology of pain / by G. Lorimer Moseley. Canberra : Dancing Giraffe Press, 2007 113 p b) Pain and Perception: a closer look at why we hurt / by Daniel S Harvie and G. Lorimer Moseley. Noigroup Publications, 2021, 41 p Workbook content: designed specifically for this study, it has the same activities as the VR workbook such as goal setting, developing a home movement program, and self-directed resources related to pain management (e.g. videos, online pain management programs). It differs without the key messages, and instead prompts reflections from the reading material about the pain system. Adherence to this intervention will assessed by a self-report questionnaire on percentage of book completion.
Sponsors
Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
• Be 18 years of age or older • Have experienced chronic non-cancer pain for longer than 6 months; • Be proficient in written and spoken English; • Have a referral to the Gold Coast Interdisciplinary Persistent Pain Centre, triaged as a category 3 (routine)
Exclusion criteria
• Have an untreated and unstable mental health condition that would prevent engagement; • Be scheduled for surgical treatment related to their pain condition within next 6 months / study period • Be undergoing treatment from other specialist services for the same pain problem • Accepted under Workcover or actively involved in litigation • Have been engaged with a multidisciplinary pain service within the last 12 months. • Have significant medical/sensory issues (hearing or visual loss, vestibular difficulties) affecting their ability to participate in the intervention • Have a significant cognitive impairment of sufficient severity that would affect the ability to self-manage their condition
Outcome results
None listed