Virtual Reality Is the New Painkiller? Study Says It Eases Chronic Pain

Move over painkillers – there’s a new way to ease long-term pain, and it involves strapping on a virtual reality headset. At Torbay Hospital in Devon, patients managing chronic pain are being offered an unexpected form of relief: immersive VR therapy that helps retrain the brain and ease discomfort without relying solely on medication.

The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust has launched an eight-week course using tech from VR company Cureo, where patients are gently coaxed into movement by entering soothing, virtual environments. Instead of focusing on their pain, they’re encouraged to explore, play, and – crucially – move.

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“It’s really difficult to move when you are like that,” explained physiotherapist Phillipa Newton-Cross, service lead for the pain rehab team, to John Ayres from the BBC. “Working with pain is like trying to work with a central nervous system that is on high alert and hot-wired and alarmed all the time.”

The aim? To calm that fight-or-flight response and help the body feel safe enough to move again. “Learning these smooth calming skills allows you to work with your pain system less in a high alert fight-or-flight response,” she added. “That’s enough that you’ll find that they can then manage to do better with conventional exercise.”

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It’s not just theory – real patients are seeing real results. David Malpas, who has progressive myopathy and limited neck movement, said: “It enabled me to move my body in different ways that I didn’t know how to… So I can turn my body left and turn my body right.” His wife Claire was just as amazed. “When we first started, I thought: ‘It’s not going to do much.’ But… the progression to moving more easily was astounding.”

Image @kurachenkov via Pinterest

Another patient, Stuart Spray, has lived with chronic pain and been on high-dose codeine for over two decades. Not anymore. “I came off codeine three months ago completely,” he told BBC News. “When I put one of these headsets on, I just disappear. I’m more concerned about me now than solving the problem.”

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The pilot was backed by a £29,000 boost from the NHS trust’s League of Friends, and 50 patients have used the system so far. While Cureo’s software has been used internationally since 2017, Torbay’s pain team is thought to be the first in the UK to integrate it into a clinical pathway.

Turns out, when it comes to pain relief, escapism really can be healing.