BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality in Medicine
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2025.1504894
A feasibility study of the use of virtual reality relaxation in an NHS inpatient neurorehabilitation unit
Provisionally accepted
- University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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OBJECTIVE: to assess the feasibility of delivering a virtual reality relaxation intervention on an inpatient neurorehabilitation unit within the NHSAn open label, feasibility study. Participants undergoing inpatient neurorehabilitation were recruited to use a virtual reality distraction intervention under the guidance of a clinician; a minimum of 1 session per participant and no upper limit. Main outcome measures were around recruitment and retention, acceptability, pain and anxiety KEY FINDINGS:1. Recruitment was lower than anticipated due to many potential participants not meeting inclusion criteria. 9 participants were recruited and used the intervention a total of 23 times. 2. Pain and anxiety scores were statistically significantly reduced (p=0.0039 for both). 3. Participants enjoyed using the VR. No serioussignificant adverse events were noted.Virtual reality relaxation is enjoyable and successfully reduced pain and anxiety scores in patients on our neurorehabilitation unit, but only a minority of neurorehabilitation inpatients were eligible for this study.
Keywords: virtual reality, Neurorehabilitation, Relaxation, Pain, anxiety Article type: Brief research report
Received: 04 Oct 2024; Accepted: 07 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Edwards. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laura Edwards, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.