The elapsed time during a virtual reality treatment for stressful procedures. A pool analysis on breast cancer patients during chemotherapy

Virtual reality (VR) during chemotherapy has resulted in an elapsed time compression effect, validating the use of VR in the treatment of some stressful conditions. In the past literature the framework of the pacemaker–accumulator cognitive model of time perception resulted very reliable to explain this effect. This pilot-study explored the efficacy of Virtual Reality in reducing the perception of time during receipt of intravenous chemotherapy. Patient’s retrospective estimates of time elapsed during this treatment were evaluated versus patient’s treated with Music-Therapy. Materials and methods 47 breast cancer patients were randomly assigned to 20 min of VR treatment (N = 24) or 20 min of Music-therapy (N = 23) during chemotherapy infusion. Difference between actual and perceived elapsed time during chemotherapy with VR and with MT were evaluated with ANOVA analysis. Results: The VR group underestimated the time spent with VR treatment, instead MT treatment group overestimated it. In one step anova model, the VR versus MT treatment showed a significant difference in terms of altered time perception (F = 5.06, p = 0.0008). Further analysis on the same panel of patients will be conducted to explain also the role of some possible mediator of this effect.