Reducing Brief Thermal and Electrical Pain (Four Study Days)
Condition: Pain
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Ultimately, the purpose of the present study is to help improve pain control in burn patients
      during wound care and physical therapy, where pain levels with opioids alone are often
      excessively high.

      This study measures how much virtual reality pain distraction reduces pain compared to
      traditional opioid pain meds, and whether there is additional pain reduction when Virtual
      Reality distraction + Opioids are combined. In addition to studying the amount of pain
      reduction, this study will also measure side effects (if any) of the two treatments (Virtual
      Reality pain distraction and Opioids) alone and when combined.

      Healthy volunteers will be recruited from advertisements will undergo a trial of the pain
      testing. They will receive a series of brief stimuli (at a painful but tolerable safe
      intensities they select and approve during baseline testing), separated by intervals of no
      pain.

      Participants will rate how much pain they felt after each brief stimulus, and will fill out
      side effects questionnaires after finishing the pain session.

      Subjects will participate in each of the four conditions in which the order is randomized.

        -  No opioids (0ng/ml hydromorphone) + no virtual reality Snow World distraction

        -  No opioids + yes virtual reality Snow World distraction

        -  Moderate dose of pain medicine (4ng/ml hydromorphone) + no virtual reality

        -  Moderate dose of pain medicine + yes virtual reality Snow World distraction

      It is our hypothesis that VR distraction + opioids will show a reduced perception of pain in
      subjects more than opioids alone or no intervention (control).
    

Detailed description: 
      In this study, healthy volunteers aged 18-45 who sign up after seeing a flyer or web posting
      are screened for exclusion via telephone interview, and if eligible, a health background
      interview. Initial contact will come from the subject's response to recruitment materials.
      Subjects may withdraw at any time.

      These safe laboratory studies with healthy volunteers are designed to help us figure out how
      to maximize the effectiveness of virtual reality when used with severe burn patients at
      Harborview Burn Center
    

Intervention name(s): Virtual Reality video distraction; Virtual Reality video game
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Intervention description(s): Virtual Reality involves wearing a helmet and playing a game called "Snow world". This game has sound and is presented in 3D format. This game has immersive qualities that help user feel as if they are "in" the game.; Virtual Reality video games involve wearing a helmet with vision and sound. this game is presented in 3D which gives the user the feeling of being "in" the game. The game used for this study is "Snow World"
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Crossover Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Pain distraction; Analgesic interventions; Burn patients