Research Project
9621475
Project Summary / Abstract Chronic pain affects over 100 million Americans, costing society about $600 billion annually. Despite numerous pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies, over 50% of chronic pain sufferers feel little control over their pain. The need for alternative, more effective pain therapies is urgent, as the U.S. faces a widening prescription opioid abuse epidemic. CognifiSense has developed a patent-pending Virtual Reality Psychological Therapy (VRPT), which is designed to create lasting reduction of chronic pain by addressing the maladaptive learning processes driving pain chronification. VRPT is an experiential learning system, which provides the brain a new set of signals that teaches it that the pain is not as bad as it perceived and that it has greater control over the pain than it perceived. VRPT combines the immersive power and the ability to individualize the therapy of Virtual Reality with well-researched principles of self-distancing, self-efficacy, and extinction to retrain the brain. The goal of this Phase I study is to determine the clinical feasibility of VRPT in achieving a lasting reduction of chronic pain, establish brain mechanisms associated with treatment response, and collect comprehensive user feedback to enable further refinement of the current product prototype. The study will include 60 adults with chronic back pain. After a two-week baseline period, VRPT will be tested on 30 subjects (treatment group) over a 4-week intervention period, and a subsequent follow-up will be conducted over two weeks. Clinical efficacy data and pre / post therapy fMRI scans will be compared to a 30-subject control group. CognifiSense's VRPT has the potential to be a significant clinical and business opportunity in the treatment of chronic pain.
