Immersive Virtual Reality to Reduce Pain and Anxiety in Individuals Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery for Acute Trauma: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Controlling acute pain for individuals undergoing orthopedic surgery is highly desirable as it is related to various treatment outcomes. Immersive, virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) is one potential treatment modality to aid in pain management. This three-arm, randomized clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of two hypnosis interventions for reducing post-surgical pain and anxiety in addition to evaluating the effects on sleep quality, mental health, and physical functioning. Results indicated no statistically significant main effects associated with intervention groups for pre-post change scores of pain intensity (F(3, 177) = 0.35, <i>p</i> = .71, partial η2 = .004), anxiety (F(3, 177) = 0.20, <i>p</i> = .81, partial η2 = .002) or sleep quality (F(3, 175) = 0.81, <i>p</i> = .45, partial η2 = .009). Additionally, there were no statistically significant group effects of treatment condition on mental health (F(2, 162) = .71, <i>p</i> = .49, η2 = .009) or physical functioning (F(2, 165) = .43, <i>p</i> = .65, η2 = .005). Issues and future directions for this line of research are discussed.