Therapeutic Use of Virtual Reality for Patients With Fibromyalgia and Chronic Neck Pain: Randomized Controlled Trial.
Edurne Úbeda-D'Ocasar, Yaiza Moreno-Crespo, Eduardo Cimadevilla-Fernández-Pola and 8 others
PMID 41575862WHAT IT FOUND
Adding 10 minutes of immersive VR to 20 minutes of neck exercises helped women with fibromyalgia more than exercises alone.
The VR group showed greater and more sustained improvements in neck disability, pain sensitization, and kinesiophobia one month after treatment.
Key findings
01The group receiving VR plus exercise maintained superior outcomes in fibromyalgia impact, central sensitization, and neck disability at 1-month follow-up, while the exercise-only group's benefits for fibromyalgia impact and sensitization converged toward control values.
02Adherence to the treatment was significantly higher in the group that included VR (94 points) compared to the group that performed exercise alone (74.72 points).
03The study design did not include a group that used VR alone, so it is not possible to determine whether the results are attributable to the VR component or its combination with exercise.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only women, so the results may not apply to men with fibromyalgia. Medication use was not controlled for, meaning concurrent drug treatments may have influenced the outcomes. There was no group that received VR alone, so the specific contribution of the technology versus the combination with exercise cannot be isolated. Participants were recruited from a single patient association, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.
Declared interests
The research received external funding for the FIBYSAR project of Camilo Jose Cela University. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that VR alone is an effective treatment for fibromyalgia. The study did not include a VR-only group, so it is impossible to separate the effect of the headset from the effect of the physical exercises it was paired with.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →