NCT03463824

The VIGOR Study - Virtual Immersive Gaming to Optimize Recovery in Low Back Pain

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 154 (actual)
• Sponsor: Virginia Commonwealth University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study will measure the effects of interactive, whole-body video games on movement behavior in people with chronic low back pain.

Detailed description

A fundamental clinical problem in individuals with chronic low back pain is the significant alteration in movement patterns that restrict lumbar spine motion. This restriction of lumbar motion is particularly evident in patients with kinesiophobia; that is, a fear of movement due to possible injury or reinjury. For chronic back pain patients with kinesiophobia it is critical to develop an effective intervention to increase spine motion while minimizing concerns of pain and harm. Accordingly, we have developed a innovative video games that track whole-body motion and are designed to encourage spinal flexion while reducing concerns of pain and harm among individuals with low back pain. Our games have two distinct advantages. First, within this video game environment, visual feedback can be altered by changing the feedback gain of a given movement (e.g., the magnitude of a given joint movement could appear on screen as either larger or smaller than the actual movement). Thus, gain manipulation will result in progressively larger amounts of lumbar spine flexion during game play. Second, video games are potent distractors that can reduce attention to pain.

Conditions

• Chronic Low Back Pain
• Fear of Pain
• Fear of Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Experimental Group 1	Participants will complete 18 intervention visits over 9 weeks with the number of sessions tapered across weeks (i.e., 3 sessions/week in weeks 1-3, 2 sessions/week in weeks 4-6, and 1 session/week in weeks 7-9).
BEHAVIORAL	Experimental Group 2	Participants will complete 18 intervention visits over 9 weeks with the number of sessions tapered across weeks (i.e., 3 sessions/week in weeks 1-3, 2 sessions/week in weeks 4-6, and 1 session/week in weeks 7-9).

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-01-10
• Primary completion: 2023-10-14
• Completion: 2023-10-14
• First posted: 2018-03-13
• Last updated: 2025-02-05
• Results posted: 2025-02-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States