VR Gap Map

Study title: Virtual Reality Interventions in Pediatric Acute and Chronic Pain

Study description: Virtual Reality (VR) has been a growing area of interest for non-pharmacological pain management for both youth with acute and chronic pain. In the last decade, there has been an exponential increase in the number of clinical trials examining the effects of VR for pediatric pain. These trials are varied across patient populations (e.g., youth undergoing painful procedures, youth with chronic musculoskeletal pain) as well as treatment targets (e.g., shifting cognitions about pain, improving emotional functioning). To this end, some populations and treatment targets have been researched much more heavily than others. The evidence and gap map developed here results from a systematic review on all VR intervention research targeting youth (0 – 18 years) with acute or chronic pain. The map highlights where research currently exists, where additional research is needed, and highlights the variability in research quality across existing studies.

The literature search was conducted in March 2022 and included 90 studies (interventional and observational studies).

The studies can be filtered by the type of pain, treatment target, and study risk of bias.