Comparing the Effectiveness of Drug Therapy and Virtual Reality on Time perception of Pain in Burn Patients in Imam Musa Kazem Training Hospital in Isfahan

Burning is one of the most painful medical injuries. Due to the painful treatment processes, the time of dressing changes and treatment processes perceive very long for patients. recently, emerging therapies such as virtual reality (VR) have been used to reduce duration of time. In this regard, the aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of drug therapy and virtual reality on the time perception in burn patients of Imam Musa Kazem Center in Isfahan.

This study was a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test with a control group. For this purpose, from the statistical population of this study, which consisted of all eligible patients admitted to the burn ward of Imam Musa Kazem Center in Isfahan in 2019, 75 patients of the burn ward of Imam Musa Kazem Educational and Medical Center by sampling Available types were selected. Then, 45 patients were enrolled in the study and were randomly assigned to two groups: experimental 1 (VR), experimental 2 (drug therapy) and a control group (15 people in each group). Subjects responded to the GRS scale before and after the interventions.

The results showed that both virtual reality and pharmacotherapy had a significant effect on time perception of pain (p <0.05). Also, both virtual reality and pharmacotherapy had a significant effect on the perception of pain over time in patients with burns and in comparing the two treatments, there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy and pharmacotherapy in reducing pain intensity (0.05 > p). The effects of both treatments were also stable over time.

 In addition to drug therapy, the use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality seems useful to reduce the damage caused by the treatment process in burn patients.