Pain is a common and feared symptom in people with life-limiting illnesses, and the management of it is primarily pharmacological. There’s widespread use of painkillers like morphine and oxycodone and whilst these drugs do have a part to play, they come with a list of severe side effects that impact the patient’s quality of life. If the physical, emotional and psychological factors causing pain are ignored you find patients on a cocktail of strong drugs, but their pain is still present.

VR treats pain by distraction. In a world with opioid crisis. Lately science has been using this cutting-edge technology to relieve pain.

VR can be used as diversional therapy to relieve anxiety and pain while aiding relaxing and breathing. While patients prefer care at home, data unfortunately shows, pain control is poorest and undertreated in about one third of patients. VR forms a multisensory experience described when the perceiver experiences a sense of presence defined as an illusion of being there. VR can be thus utilized as an effective analgesic intervention for chronic pain conditions including fibromyalgia and spinal cord injury pain and acute pain situations including labour and procedural pain, PTSD, panic disorder patients and severe burns.