How Virtual Reality Can Help Solve The Opioid Crisis

The opioid crisis has crippled thousands of American families. VR technology may be the surprising new solution for pain management.

- Katie McBeth

When you fracture a bone, your doctor will prescribe painkillers to minimize your suffering while you recover or wait for surgery. If you suffer from burns, you will most likely receive a dose of morphine to help ease the pain. If you’re a chronic illness and chronic pain sufferer, you might even be dependent on codeine to get through your day.

Fentanyl, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, and morphine: these are some of the more common forms of opioid-based painkillers that are prescribed today. Unfortunately for those that suffer from intense, acute, and near-constant pain, these medication can be highly addictive. So why is it that they’re still so commonly prescribed?

In America, the opioid crisis has come to a head. Many Americans—specifically those in the Native American population and those in predominantly African American communities—are struggling with opioid addiction and overdose deaths due to these painkillers. What once started out as a much-needed and soothing remedy for a painful tooth abscess or a broken leg soon turned into a deadly addiction.

As the New York Times reported, the overall life expectancy of citizens of the United States has dropped due to the large amount of drug overdoses that have occurred throughout the year.

In 2016 for Washington, D.C, alone, the New York Times reported: “the emergence of fentanyls caused the rate of drug deaths to double in a single year.”

Many of those affected during this spike in 2016 appeared to be older, black American men, but historically the opioid epidemic has been prevalent among almost every demographic: especially so among urban white Americans.

AMERICA NEEDS A FIX