The Soothing Sea: A Virtual Coastal Walk Can Reduce Experienced and Recollected Pain

Virtual reality (VR) distraction has become increasingly available in health care contexts and is used in acute pain management. However, there has been no systematic exploration of the importance of the content of VR environments. Two studies tested how interacting with nature VR influenced experienced and recollected pain after 1 week. Study 1 (n = 85) used a laboratory pain task (cold pressor), whereas Study 2 (n = 70) was a randomized controlled trial with patients undergoing dental treatment. In Study 1, nature (coastal) VR reduced both experienced and recollected pain compared with no VR. In Study 2, nature (coastal) VR reduced experienced and recalled pain in dental patients, compared with urban VR and standard care. Together, these data show that nature can improve experience of health care procedures through the use of VR, and that the content of the VR matters: Coastal nature is better than urban. 1Plymouth University, Devon, UK 2University of Exeter, Truro, Cornwall, UK 3Torrington Dental Practice, UK 4University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, West Midlands, UK 5Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Corresponding Author: Karin Tanja-Dijkstra, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1091, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected] 710077 EABXXX10.1177/0013916517710077Environment and BehaviorTanja-Dijkstra et al. research-article2017