Discussion
pain
The purpose of the present research letter was (1) to report 24-month posttreatment durability results and (2) to examine the time course of “clinically meaningful responder” rates from a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, and industry-sponsored randomized controlled trial comparing an 8-week self-administered, in-home Skills-Based VR with Sham VR in cLBP using the AppliedVR product. Skills-Based VR was superior to Sham VR in reducing pain intensity and pain interference at 24 months after treatment and yielded significant pain intensity and interference reductions at 24 months after treatment relative to baseline. Nearly two-thirds of Skills-Based VR participants showed clinically meaningful reductions in pain intensity and pain interference at the end of treatment, whereas just over one-third of Sham VR participants showed this pattern. Individual participant reductions remained durable, with ≥65% Skills-Based VR participants showing clinically meaningful reductions in pain intensity, pain interference, or both at each posttreatment time point to 24 months. In contrast, at no posttreatment time point did ≥50% of Sham VR participants show clinically meaningful reductions in pain intensity, pain interference, or both.These findings suggest that Skills-Based VR might provide the durable, nonpharmacological, in-home pain relief that patients need and that the CDC and CMS recommend.