A customizable and modular VR game for use in pain distraction

Abstract

Chronic pain is defined as pain persisting for more than three months. The cause of these conditions varies from musculoskeletal issues to nerve damage. These issues may cause reduced movement, further impacting the patient's condition and rehabilitation. It is, as such, desirable to limit the pain caused by the conditions to limit the negative effects on rehabilitation and improve the patient's life. This is done through the use of drugs and therapies focusing on training pain perception and relief. One of the therapies concerns distraction from the pain. This can be done using VR games.

Chronic pain varies in severity and affected areas, which makes facilitating all conditions challenging. We created a VR game that could have multiple different mini-games in it to tackle this challenge. This allows for different scenarios to be used based on the patient's capabilities. The mini-games we implemented in this project were selected based on discussions with physiotherapists to ensure that they were relevant to the medical field. Each mini-game could be customized to fit the need and difficulty a user would prefer.

The evaluators for this game were healthcare professionals, as evaluations with patients would have been difficult to achieve in this project. The evaluators' subjective scores were positive and may suggest a possible effect on chronic pain. However, further testing with patients would be needed to conclude if this is the case.