Virtual reality animations, a new strategy to reduce patients’ anxiety induced by radiotherapy

Van Ooteghem, Geneviève [UCL] Geets, Xavier [UCL]

PURPOSE OR OBJECTIVE : Patients facing medical and technological interventions such as radiotherapy, mechanically-assisted and non-invasive ventilation (MANIV), or MRI can experience a high level of anxiety and discomfort in addition of the stressful background linked to cancer. This can lead to negative impacts on their mental status but also have deleterious consequences during radiation treatments (difficulties in positioning, movements during irradiation, impaired breathing) and thus also impact the treatment efficacy. Virtual reality and hypnosis are stress management strategies that showed encouraging results in different medical fields. The efficacy on anxiety of a dedicated hypnotising Virtual Reality Animation (VRA) commercialised by Oncomfort® was evaluated in patients included in a trial assessing MANIV. This trial aimed to demonstrate the safety and the efficacy of MANIV to stabilize and modulate the breathing pattern without any sedation. Patients were therefore connected to a mechanical ventilator and asked to give up control on their breathing. They could thus experience anxiety. [...]