Comparing the Effectiveness of Drug Therapy and Virtual Reality on Pain Anxiety and Pain Severity of Burn Patients

Burns are one of the most destructive injuries and one of the most common psychological problems in patients affected by burns is pain anxiety. The most common treatment for burn problems is medication and drug therapy, but recently emerging therapies such as 3D virtual reality have been used to reduce the severity and anxiety of pain. the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of drug therapy and virtual reality on pain anxiety and pain severity in burn patients of Imam Musa Center in Isfahan.

This study was a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test with control group. For this purpose, the study population consisted of all eligible patients in burn section of Imam Musa Kazem Medical Center in Isfahan in 1977. Available types selected. Then, according to inclusion criteria, 45 patients were included in the study and were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental 1 (virtual reality therapy), experimental 2 (drug therapy) and one control group (15 patients each). Before and after the intervention, subjects responded to the GRS and BSPAS.

The results showed that both virtual reality therapy and drug therapy had a significant effect on burn pain anxiety of burn patients and compared the two treatments, the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy was more than drug therapy and the difference between drug therapy and treatment groups. Virtual reality was significant (p <0.05). Also, both virtual reality therapy and drug therapy had a significant effect on perceived pain severity in burn patients and there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy and drug therapy in reducing pain severity (p <0.05).

although Both drug therapy and virtual reality software are effective in treating pain anxiety and pain severity in burn patients, virtual reality seems to be more effective than drug therapy because of distracting attention from external and painful stimuli and immersing the person into the virtual and pleasant world.