Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38949175›Full record

ArticleEFORT open reviews2024

Virtual reality-based therapy for chronic low back and neck pain: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Juan Manuel Henríquez-Jurado, María Catalina Osuna-Pérez, Héctor García-López, Rafael Lomas-Vega, María Del Carmen López-Ruiz, Esteban Obrero-Gaitán, Irene Cortés-Pérez

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in EFORT open reviews, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Virtual reality based-rehabilitation for chronic neck pain: an overview of systematic reviews with meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Juan Manuel Henríquez-JuradoDepartment of Health Sciences. University of Jaén. Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén, Spain.ORCID 0009-0007-0406-1256
María Catalina Osuna-PérezDepartment of Health Sciences. University of Jaén. Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén, Spain.
Héctor García-LópezDepartment of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medicine. University of Almería. Ctra Sacrament s/n, Almería, Spain.
Rafael Lomas-VegaDepartment of Health Sciences. University of Jaén. Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén, Spain.
María Del Carmen López-RuizDepartment of Health Sciences. University of Jaén. Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén, Spain.
Esteban Obrero-GaitánDepartment of Health Sciences. University of Jaén. Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-8430-5500
Irene Cortés-PérezDepartment of Health Sciences. University of Jaén. Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén, Spain.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Purpose: To compile all the scientific evidence available to date to evaluate the effect of virtual reality based therapy (VRBT) on reducing pain intensity, kinesiophobia, and associated disability, and on increasing the hr-QoL in patients with chronic neck pain (CNP) or chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods: Studies published in PubMed Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, CINAHL Complete, and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) up to June 2023 were searched. All searches followed the PICOS Framework. Two authors independently screened the studies found in the searches. Any differences of opinion regarding the selection of studies were settled by a third author. Results: Twenty-five RCTs, published between 2013 and 2022, providing data from 1261 patients (20 RCTs) with CLBP and 261 patients (five RCTs) with CNP, were included. In reducing pain intensity for patients with CLBP, meta-analyses showed that VRBT is effective in reducing pain just to the end of the intervention, and this effect could be maintained 1 and 6 months after the therapy. Conclusion: VRBT was found to be better than therapeutic exercise (TE), sham, and no intervention (NI), showing a major effect when VRBT was used as a complementary therapy to conventional physiotherapy (CPT). Further, VRBT showed an immediate effect and immersive VRBT was the most adequate VRBT modality in reducing pain in CNP patients. No differences were found between non-immersive VRBT and immersive VRBT in reducing pain, kinesiophobia, disability, and hr-QoL in patients with CLBP.

Indexed as

chronic low back painchronic neck paindisabilityhealth related-quality of lifekinesiophobiavirtual reality-based therapy

Identifiers

PMID38949175
PMCPMC11297406

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.