Looking for ways to ease their chemo symptoms, Duke University Medical School had cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy with special virtual reality headsets that sent immersed into a computerized world of play where they could solve mysteries, visit an art gallery, or go deep-sea diving.

They found out that using virtual reality during chemotherapy helps relieve some of the symptoms that patients experience in the hours and days after therapy.

Also burn patient who’s pain is so intense that even the most gentle of hospital procedures can be excruciating, reported a 40 percent to 50 percent drop in perceived pain if given virtual reality headsets.

The secret probably lies in attentional distraction: people have a limited amount of information, the spotlight of patients’ attention being drawn into this virtual world, less attention is available to process incoming pain signals.

The estimated cost to add virtual reality to chemotherapy would total only about $5 per session.

From NeuroReport, via El Mundo.