The School of Nursing’s Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS, is studying how immersive virtual reality can reduce pain and even replace the need for opioid medications in some patients.
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What if chronic pain relief could come not from a pill bottle, but from a headset?
That’s the focus of the groundbreaking research by Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Colloca, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and director of the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center, is studying how immersive virtual reality (VR) can reduce pain and even replace the need for opioid medications in some patients.
“Virtual reality is a digital therapeutic,” Colloca explained. “The goal is to help patients cope with their pain — but also restructure the neuronal mechanisms that sustain pain.”
The implications are far-reaching. In a time when the opioid crisis still grips communities and chronic pain affects millions, research like Colloca’s offers new hope — and new tools.
In a new video Q&A, Colloca discusses how her team is using brain imaging, pharmacological techniques, and virtual home trials to explore what she calls the brain’s “inner pharmacy.”