Neural Mechanisms of Immersive Virtual Reality in Chronic Pain

Summary

This project examines, in chronic pain, the mechanisms of immersive virtual reality compared to the mechanisms of placebo hypoalgesia. The potential of developing new non-pharmacological premises for low-risk interventions for pain management is high.

Conditions

• Pain
• Virtual Reality
• Placebo
• Temporomandibular Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Active Virtual Reality

Participants will be assigned to an immersive VR environment.

BEHAVIORAL

sham Virtual Reality

Participants will be assigned to a sham VR environment without the immersive experience.

OTHER

No Intervention

Participants will experience tonic pain tolerance tests without exposure to any environments.

DRUG

Naloxone

4mg of Naloxone will be administered (0.1 mL of 40 mg/ml naloxone solution given intranasally). A random allocation sequence will be independently generated by the UM Pharmacy. The Principal investigator will call for each experiment.

OTHER

Saline

Intranasal Normal Saline (0.1 mL 0.9% sodium chloride) will be administered shortly before beginning the fMRI experiment. A random allocation sequence will be independently generated by the UM Pharmacy. The Principal investigator will call for each experiment.

OTHER

Natural history

Participants will not be provided Naloxone or Saline.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Maryland, Baltimore

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Luana Colloca, MD/PhD/MS · University of Maryland Baltimore School of Nursing

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

88 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-11-01

Primary Completion

2025-12-30

Completion

2026-11-30

FDA Drug

Yes

Countries

• United States

Study Locations