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The effectiveness of virtual reality distraction interventions on pain and anxiety reduction in patients wit burn injuries: A systematic literature review

Miebert, Marie A. N. (2020) The effectiveness of virtual reality distraction interventions on pain and anxiety reduction in patients wit burn injuries: A systematic literature review.

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Abstract:Virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly used as a distraction intervention during painful medical procedures. However, there is a gap of recent systematic reviews in the scientific literature about the effectiveness of VR distraction on pain and anxiety reduction in burn patients. Therefore, the goal of this systematic literature review was to gain insight about the most recent findings about the effectiveness and clinical relevance of active and passive VR distraction for pain and anxiety reduction in burn injured patients. Another aim of this review was to detect differences in the pain and anxiety reducing effect of VR between younger and older burn victims. First, it was hypothesized that VR interventions would effectively reduce pain and anxiety in burn wound patients. Second, it was hypothesized that the VR treatment would show a greater pain and anxiety relieving effect on child and adolescent patients than on adult patients. The databases PubMed, PsychINFO and Scopus have been searched for studies containing information about the effectiveness of VR interventions on managing pain, anxiety or both in burn injured patients reported separately for child and adolescent patients and adult patients. Of the 13 studies included in this review relevant data was extracted, effect sizes generated and summarized. Ten articles found a pain relieving effect of VR distraction. Three articles indicated an anxiety reducing effect of VR distraction and an additional study indicated a reducing effect on negative emotions including fear. Effect sizes of six articles did not reveal a difference in the pain reducing effect of VR distraction between child and adolescent patients and adult patients. Finally, the effect sizes of three studies indicated VR interventions to more effectively reduce anxiety in child and adolescent patients than in adult patients. The results highlight the benefit of VR distraction interventions for pain and anxiety management in the clinical setting. However, the small number of effect sizes that could be generated from the articles limits the representativeness of the results. Future research should continue to examine possible differences of the pain and anxiety reducing effect of VR treatments between younger and older patients, since children have fewer understanding and coping strategies to deal with medical procedures than adults, which makes the exploration of effective interventions for young patients especially important.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Unknown organization, Köln, Deutschland
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/82864
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