Remote cognitive behavioral therapy utilizing an in-home virtual reality toolkit (Vx Therapy) reduces pain, anxiety, and depression in patients with chronic cervical and lumbar spondylytic pain: A potential alternative to opioids in multimodal pain management

• Published in: North American Spine Society journal (NASSJ) 2023-12, Vol.16, p.100287-100287, Article 100287
• Main Authors: McGirt, Matthew J., Holland, Christopher M., Farber, S. Harrison, Zuckerman, Scott L., Spertus, Michael S., Theodore, Nicholas, Pfortmiller, Deborah, Stanley, Gerry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Back pain; CBT, Spondylytic pain; Chronic pain; Clinical Studies; Cognitive behavioral therapy; Neck pain; Virtual reality therapy
• ISSN: 2666-5484; 2666-5484
• DOI: 10.1016/j.xnsj.2023.100287

Background ContextVirtual reality (VR) reduces pain through visual and auditory distraction without narcotic-related side effects or dependency. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) improves pain-related disability and quality of life, but patient access remains a challenge. We hypothesized that in-home weekly CBT coordinated with daily use of a proprietary VR toolkit will reduce pain, anxiety, and depression for patients with non-operative chronic cervical and lumbar spondylitic pain with and without radiculopathy.MethodsA total of 145 patients with chronic spondylitic pain (63 cervical, 46 noradicular lumbar, 36 radicular lumbar) were enrolled into a guided 14-week VR+CBT program (Vx Therapy) consisting of weekly encounters with a trained therapist and 50 modules. Pain/anxiety severity scores and time to pain recurrence were recorded prospectively by patients. PROMIS measures of overall daily pain intensity, behavior, interference, anxiety, and depression were recorded at baseline and conclusion of the program.ResultsA total of 52% of the 145 patients were male. The average (SD) age of the cohort was 51 (10.7) years (range: 24-76 years). Mean score for all PROMIS domains were significantly improved after 14 weeks of Vx Therapy (pain intensity 36±24 vs. 28±21, interference 39±25 vs. 24±21, behavior 35±21 vs. 25±16, anxiety 51±28 vs. 41±26, depression 58±32 vs. 48±32) for the entire cohort and each diagnosis group. Virtual reality acutely reduced pain on average by 33% (4.5±2.5 vs. 6.7±2.2, p