Virtual reality has proven useful for more than just games. It can also take people in extreme pain, like burn victims, away from their horrible trauma. The trick is that pain differs depending on the patient’s thoughts and emotions. Distracted by a virtual reality, patients don’t feel their wounds with the same intensity, and so the perception of pain is dulled. The end result is that patients require fewer drugs and lower dosages. OregonLive has the story.
Video games do the job, too. Ask me how I know, sometime. The real bonus to virtual reality isn’t just that it distracts the patient, but that it blocks out the world as well. If you can’t see the operating room and the nasty saw with the spikes on it, then you won’t stress out about what’s going on over the lump of ground beef that used to be your arm.
Wow quite a good read… we are getting further!