Virtual Reality and PDA Device Therapy as Psychological Treatment for Fibromyalgia

A new therapy based on the use of mobile devices and virtual reality could help patients with fibromyalgia, according to a team of researchers from the Labpsictec at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellon, the LahHuman Group at the Universidad Politecnica of Valencia, and the University of Valencia.

The therapy is being validated at the Universitat Jaume I and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) on a group of 24 patients.

"Our aim is to achieve that woman patients learn strategies to face the pain which are an alternative to those they use and which are adaptive in order to improve their physical and mental state and their quality of life", said Beatriz Rey, researcher of the LabHuman of the UPV, in a news release.

The therapy contains three applications. The first is an evaluation system of the chronic pain key factors through mobile devices. The system is based on a commercial PDA and made-to-measure device. The degree of physical activity is monitored by the device, which communicates with the PDA via Bluetooth.

An Application on the PDA is used to ask the patient questions to be answered three times a week. These questions are about the intensity of pain (on a scale from 0 to 10), intensity of fatigue (on a scale series of emotions), and mood (on a scale from 1 to 7). The answers are stored in the PDA, which can then be synchronized with the computer of a medical office and can be stored.

The therapy also uses a new version of the virtual reality system EMMA, designed with the purpose of inducing positive emotions in female patients that use the system. The therapy requires psychologists to supervise group sessions using a system of unique screen projection. These sessions are guided and use contents (texts, sounds, videos, music, and images) to induce positive emotions. During each session, the system aids the female patient in considering a feasible objective she must fulfill before taking part on the next one. The patients follow a treatment of three weeks with two sessions a week for making an evaluation of the system.