Palliative care is the interdisciplinary medical specialty of caring for people with serious and often terminal illnesses. Its aim is to improve quality of life for such patients and their families, by relieving symptoms and stress.
Palliative care is widely considered to be a human right, even if the World Health Organization estimates that only 14% of the approximately 56.8 million people who need it each year worldwide actually receive it. Since seriously ill patients often experience stress, psychological interventions such as relaxation therapy play an important role in palliative care.
Now, researchers have shown in a ground-breaking clinical trial that a novel intervention, “Flourishing-Life-of-Wish Virtual Reality Relaxation Therapy (FLOW-VRT-Relaxation),” helps cancer patients in palliative care hospices to manage their symptoms and stress better, and may even help them to achieve a last wish. Their results are published in Frontiers in Virtual Reality.
“Here we show that relaxation assisted by virtual reality (VR) outperforms traditional relaxation therapy in terms of physical and psychological symptom management in palliative care,” said lead author Olive Woo, a doctoral student at the Department of Psychology of the University of Hong Kong, and a registered clinical psychologist and certified thanatologist.
Virtual reality to induce ‘flourishing’
FLOW-VRT-Relaxation, designed by Woo and team in 2020, combines standard-of-care relaxation therapy—teaching patients diaphragmatic breathing, to slow their heartbeat, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress—with watching a relaxing 360° panoramic video played on an immersive VR headset.
It aims to promote the psychological state of ‘flourishing’: optimal well-being and fulfillment, where patients experience positive emotions, engage in meaningful activities, and have a sense of purpose and accomplishment.
Between November 2022 and September 2023, the researchers recruited 128 volunteers among adult female and male patients with terminal cancer in the palliative care ward of a public hospital in Hong Kong. Half of the volunteers were randomly assigned to each of two groups: either FLOW-VRT-Relaxation, including coaching in diaphragmatic breathing by Woo, in the intervention group, or such standard-of-care coaching only in the control group.
The eight VR videos had been preselected (based on responses to a survey among eligible patients) as likely to give patients a sense of joy, closure, and a meaningful end-of-life experience. They may even help them to achieve a last wish, for example seeing the cherry blossoms in Japan, even if just in VR. Each video was 10 minutes long, and accompanied by soothing music. Similar music was also played for patients in the control group. Each participant in the intervention group chose his or her preferred video from the shortlist.
Spontaneous feedback from patients was positive. “Some participants expressed a sense of awe and wonder as they immerse themselves in virtual environments and engaged in activities they previously thought impossible. Others expressed feelings of joy, excitement, and gratitude for being able to fulfill their wishes or engage in activities they have always dreamed of, or a sense of empowerment and confidence through their engagement with VR technology,” observed Woo.
More information:
Flourishing-life-of-wish virtual reality relaxation therapy (FLOW-VRT-Relaxation) outperforms traditional relaxation therapy in palliative Care: results from a randomized controlled trial, Frontiers in Virtual Reality (2024). DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2023.1304155
Citation:
Virtual reality treatment for palliative care shown to help patients ‘flourish’ during relaxation therapy (2024, January 31)
retrieved 31 January 2024
from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-virtual-reality-treatment-palliative-shown.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
