There are many studies shown to alleviate pain during labor and other medical procedures as well as to victims of neuropathy, this time no drug is related, instead, a device used for gaming called VR is an alternative for pain management.

It was recently found out that the new treatment for pain is not a drug, but a technology and what is more exciting is that it is used for gaming. For years, researchers and physicians make experiments on how a pain may be reduced using virtual reality.

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The quality of the hardware is increasingly improved, while its price is rapidly decreasing. That is why Virtual Reality is an exciting option to control pain.

Patients undertaking medical procedures can reduce the pain by virtual reality since it will serve as a distraction. Simultaneously, prescriptions to reduce pain such as opioids may be effective, but very addictive.  According to TG Daily, Virtual Reality is not only the future of entertainment, but it will also serve in the medical world.

Meanwhile, University of Washington professor of psychology David Patterson said that pulling away so much attention to process pain will help in making the pain less. He used Virtual Reality in alleviating pain of burn patients.

One of the extremely painful injuries that can be suffered by a patient is burns. Not only that, the healing process is even more painful. Patterson said that there is a need to clean and dress the affected area frequently to make it free from infection and to keep it healthy. He further explained that patients should play a game, aside from making the patient exposed to a virtual world.

On the other hand, Futurism reported that A New York hospital is also experimenting how to manage pain using VR. Orange Regional Medical Center OBGYN Dr. Ralph Anderson oversaw how VR is used to cope up labor pains.

Erin Martucci, his patient, equipped herself with a VR inducing a meditation experience. Instead of seeing herself in a hospital room, she was transported to a soothing beach vista where she could hear a crashing waterfall, a crackling fire, and the chirping of birds with soothing music.

This kind of process is entirely drug-free and it was proven to be effective by various researches.

However, it received some criticisms arguing that too much of distraction may be detrimental to the process of birth. Furthermore, Science News reported that Virtual Reality headsets can cause motion sickness. Yet, it has proven its previous status being just a device used for gaming.