ArticleBMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation2025
VR-guided exercise and mindfulness program for people with chronic pain: a randomised controlled cross-over pilot trial.
Article in BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06611566 (Virtual-reality-guided Exercise and Mindfulness Program for People with Chronic Pain Under Rehabilitation), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Virtual-reality-guided Exercise and Mindfulness Program for People with Chronic Pain Under Rehabilitation: a Randomised Controlled Cross-over Trial
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPhysical exercises and mindfulness are important components in the management of chronic pain, but pain may reduce exercise adherence. Virtual reality (VR) can provide cognitive inhibition of the ascending pain signal and may thus be a tool for the delivery of pain management during exercise interventions. In this study we assessed a VR-guided intervention seeking to improve physical fitness in individuals with chronic pain.
methodsParticipants in rehabilitation for chronic pain were included in a randomised controlled pilot trial with a cross-over design. In counter-balanced order participants were asked to perform, five minutes of aerobic exercise following identical instructions given through either a VR headset or television (TV) screen. The procedures were then repeated with mindfulness exercises. Heart rate (HR) was monitored throughout all four sessions and participants self-reported perceived exercise intensity, benefit, relaxation, and reward. Paired Student's t-test, Wilcoxon signed rank test and McNemar's test were performed to compare the outcome variables across sessions for individuals, as appropriate. (Clinical trial registration NCT06611566 09.09.24, retrospectively registered).
resultsTwenty-seven participants were included in the study. The mean age (SD) was 40.4 (11.3) years, and 17 (63%) were men. Mean HR, the proportion of time spent at moderate-vigorous exercise intensity levels, and all self-reported measurements were comparable between the VR vs. TV sessions. No major adverse events were reported. The physiological and perceived exercise outputs of aerobic exercises were thus similar across modes of delivery (VR vs. TV) in individuals with chronic pain.
conclusionsThis study confirms the possibilities of VR-guided interventions in the pain management of individuals with chronic pain with comparable levels of exertion to TV-guided exercise and few adverse events. The promise of VR-guided mindfulness in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic pain conditions is also confirmed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.