VR and video-based approaches are still being studied, but their relatively low cost\u2013especially with newer VR devices\u2013and ease of use could make them easier to scale than some in-person, non-drug pain treatments. For now, their reach remains limited by awareness and access.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t have a good system in place to make sure individuals have access to the care they need,\u201d says Nicole Hemmenway<\/a>, CEO of the U.S. Pain Foundation. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interesting, amazing digital health tools, but I think it works different for every single person. At the end of the day pain is so individualized.\u201d Insurance companies, she adds, are unlikely to cover experimental treatments.<\/p>\n Why psychotherapy still matters for chronic pain<\/p>\n For patients navigating chronic pain, finding the right combination of care can be overwhelming. The U.S. Pain Foundation has tried to help patients navigate that complexity through an interactive tool called My Pain Plan<\/a>, which walks users through options ranging from breathwork to chiropractors to medication to digital tools. They also host free online peer support groups. \u201cThis isn\u2019t therapy,\u201d says Hemmenway, who is also a CRPS patient. \u201cIt\u2019s to help individuals think about tools, coping strategies, and community building.\u201d<\/p>\n Psychotherapy itself, however, is a well-supported treatment<\/a> for chronic pain, and technology is making that more accessible as well. Beth Darnall<\/a>, a pain psychologist at Stanford University, developed a single-session, two-hour pain-relief skills intervention called Empowered Relief<\/a>, which is supported by four randomized controlled trials. Participants can also use an accompanying app to continue practicing what they\u2019ve learned. \u201cI found that my patients could not access the treatments I recommended they receive in their communities,\u201d Darnall says.<\/p>\n Even when care is available, psychological approaches can be a hard sell. Framing a patient\u2019s experience as \u201cpsychological\u201d can feel dismissive or invalidating, note Hemmenway and Trost, who are both patients themselves\u2014especially for people who have spent years trying to convince doctors that their suffering is real. That\u2019s one reason Empowered Relief is described as skills training rather than psychotherapy, Darnall says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VR and video-based approaches are still being studied, but their relatively low cost\u2013especially with newer VR devices\u2013and ease…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7422,129103,129098,104071,163,85,46,129097,129102,129106,514,129104,129101,129105,129095,129096,129099,129100],"class_list":["post-239401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-chronic-pain","tag-chronic-pain-research","tag-chronic-pain-treatment","tag-digital-health-tools","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-managing-chronic-pain","tag-non-drug-pain-treatments","tag-pain-and-the-brain","tag-pain-management","tag-pain-neuroscience","tag-pain-perception","tag-psychological-pain-treatment","tag-technology-and-chronic-pain","tag-virtual-reality-pain-relief","tag-virtual-reality-therapy","tag-vr-for-pain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}