Impact of Virtual Reality on Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Interventional Procedures
Purpose
Periprocedural anxiety is a common problem for patients who undergo interventional pain procedures. Virtual Reality (VR) is an immersive experience that has gained acceptance in the medical field as a tool for reducing anxiety and pain for patients.Research Aim: To evaluate the effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) on periprocedural anxiety related to therapeutic cervical epidural steroid injections (ESI). The investigators hypothesize that immersive virtual reality will result in a clinically meaningful anxiety reduction, defined as the proportion of participants with > 50% reduction in Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) anxiety scores when compared to participants in the non-treatment group who will have standard preprocedural waiting time conditions in clinic, but no VR experience. Similarly, the investigators hypothesize a significant reduction in objective sympathetic tone as measured by skin sympathetic nerve activity (SKNA).
Condition
- Anxiety
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Between 18 Years and 80 Years
- Eligible Genders
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- Age 18-80 years old at day of enrollment - Neck pain patient deemed to be a candidate for pain control treatment with interventional fluoroscopically guided cervical epidural steroid injection as determined by their pain medicine provider based on history, physical exam, and radiographic findings - Willingness to undergo pre-procedural intervention of VR viewing experience or equivalent pre-procedural wait time - No history of prior epidural steroid injections - Did not receive sedatives prior to or during procedure
Exclusion Criteria
- Refusal / inability to participate or provide consent - Contraindications to injection (anticoagulated states, allergy to components of injection, local infection at injection site, current infectious process or treatment of antibiotics for current infection) - Uncontrolled anxiety disorder or untreated/inadequately treated psychiatric disorder - History of Alzheimer's, dementia, or cognitive dysfunction - Patient currently taking benzodiazepines - Severe motion sickness - Seizure disorder - Vision loss - Non-English speaking patients
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Intervention Model Description
- Randomized controlled observational trial
- Primary Purpose
- Other
- Masking
- None (Open Label)
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
|
Experimental Group 1 Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) |
Participants in Group 1 Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) will wear the device covering their eyes. The viewing experience will include calming nature sounds for between 15-20 minutes before their planned plain clinic procedure. |
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|
Placebo Comparator Group 2 control group |
Group 2 control group has no preprocedural intervention. Standard clinic waiting conditions for 15-20 minutes before their planned pain clinic procedure. |
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Recruiting Locations
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Northwestern University
