Can Virtual Reality Help Seniors With Dementia, Emotional-Instability?

I have written two prior articles on two widely differing applications of virtual reality (VR) and during my research have found a number of other medical applications for this remarkable technology. I have also highlighted two different companies in this space; medical education for surgeons and patient treatment of phobias. 

This article will focus on One Caring Team, founded by Sonya Kim, MD, MBA, an emergency department (ED) physician in the San Francisco Bay area. Dr Kim became enthralled with VR a number of years ago and started taking VR headsets to seniors and other chronic patients as part of their medical treatment. 

She talks about a 103 year old who in real life was sitting in a sofa at an assisted living facility but in the virtual world was on a Hawaiian beach at sunset, surrounded by glistening sea and a purple-red sky. As she moves her head, the scene moves and she can see the fronds of an enormous palm tree above her head and other sights to both sides. 

She noted that VR helped seniors with loneliness and lifts the moods of those who are anxious, bored, depressed or have dementia. She has received numerous stories from caregivers and relatives of patients who experienced the use of VR including seeing a demented patient become alert, relaxed, and engaged. Another, one who was withdrawn began to sing and even decreased in hitting her caregivers.

While the exact mechanism of VR has not been elucidated, Dr Kim speculates that immersing patients into a virtual world stimulates their brains in a variety of ways that were dormant, possibly rewiring the neural pathways. Seniors can see beautiful sights and hear music that are totally different than their routines—and let’s face it, worlds beyond the boring surroundings of nursing homes or households.

One of the limiting factors in the use of VR for seniors is the cost. A set of Oculus Rift VR, a self contained device, runs about $600. Add on headsets for smart phones such as the Samsung Gear VR plus the Samsung S6 phone are running in the $340 range. These prices are certainly going to come down and of course, many of the younger relatives of these people are likely to be able to help in this area as these devices become as common as a DVD or an Xbox.

A quick search on PubMed found literally thousands of references to VR in a variety of uses in medicine, which demonstrates the versatility of this interesting technology. Who would have predicted that what basically started as an entertainment device for techies would have such potential as a powerful medical treatment strategy for our seniors?  That is the promise of digital technology, going places we never conceived of before.