Video games treat chronic pain better than drugs

by Eli Shayotovich Dec 17th 2007 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Real life, Culture, News items, Academic, Virtual worlds

The last thing Merck or Pfizer want to hear is that their drugs aren't needed anymore. According to Diane Gromala, a Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) professor, that may just be the case. She bases her belief on the many experiments that consistently show people who suffer serious, chronic pain (which Gromala suffers from herself) often find more relief in virtual reality environments than drug-based treatments.

According to a CanWest News Service article, Gromala is currently working with doctors to learn why subjects who are distracted in virtual reality worlds report less pain than those using drug-based pain therapy. She believes that controlling pain through computerized VR and biofeedback mediation gives people ways to express, control, and keep track of their pain that pills can't. Video games have been shown to help patients in drug addiction therapy, why not pain management as well?

If her studies pan out to be true (we first learned about this story from the folks at FileFront) , it will most certainly help vidicate an industry that has otherwise been villified for everything from mass school shootings to creating a generation of slackers. A little bit of good PR for video games would be a nice change of pace.

Tags: biofeedback, chronic-pain, Diane-Gromala, drugs, meditation, mmo, rehabilitation, Simon-Fraser-University, virtual-reality

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Coherent said on 2:28PM 12-17-2007

I've noticed this too. Playing a game in an MMO (or even solo games) can reduce discomfort or pain from physical sources.

Obviously because it literally takes your mind off it. Instead of lying there thinking about how much you hurt, you're _doing_ something and instead of being focused on the pain, you can be focused on the MMO or game.

Seth said on 3:32PM 12-17-2007

I'd have to agree with this. Right now, I am at home with food poisoning playing LotRO and I don't feel quite as bad as I did when I was trying to watch a movie.