EaseVRx-8w+ for the Treatment of Chronic Lower Back Pain

NCT ID: NCT05263037

Last Updated: 2025-01-29

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 1093 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-01-31
• Study Completion Date: 2026-06-30

Brief Summary

The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to assess outcomes for virtual reality therapy (including pain intensity, pain interference, anxiety, depression, physical function, sleep, behavioral skills development, health outcomes and satisfaction) along with healthcare utilization and costs in participants with Chronic Low Back Pain.

Detailed Description

This is a decentralized, randomized controlled trial with four parallel study arms comparing change from pre-treatment to end-of-treatment to 12-months posttreatment in the EaseVRx-8w, EaseVRx-8w plus extended on-demand and Control groups. After consenting to join the study, participants will be randomized and allocated to one of four treatment programs. Study devices will be delivered to the participant's home with instructions for use via FedEx with complementary remote technical support.

• participants in the EaseVRx-8w arm will participate in an 8-week interventional program and continue to be followed for 24 months after completion of treatment
• participants in the EaseVRx-8w plus extended on-demand arm will enroll in an 8-week interventional program and be offered an extended 8-week ondemand period, and continue to be followed for 24 months after the completion of treatment.• participants in the first control arm will receive 2D Sham VR virtual reality content during the 8-week interventional program and continue to be followed for 24 months after the completion of treatment
• participants in the second control arm will receive 2D Sham VR virtual reality content during the 8-week interventional program and be offered an extended 8-week on-demand period, after which they will continue to be followed for 24 months after the completion of treatment All trial participants will be monitored for pain intensity and pain interference, physical function, behavioral skills development, health outcomes and satisfaction.

Additionally, to assess resource use associated with CLBP, participant data will be run through a secure Datavant matching process to be linked to their healthcare claims data if it is available in the Komodo data set. The claims will provide descriptive characterizations of resource use and healthcare costs associated with CLBP. For participant-level changes in resource use, and for comparisons between study arms, only the participants with complete claims files will be assessed. Claims matched data will capture all interactions with the healthcare system that generate an insurance claim record, which includes such things as physician visits, interventions such as steroid injections, surgery or physical therapy, emergent use of services, medications, and diagnostic procedures. Claims adjudication often lags a few months, so the most robust analyses of utilization will be performed about 6 months after the time point of interest. Health economic modeling will be performed after 1 year to assess the cost and economic outcomes of the EaseVRx intervention.

Conditions

Chronic Low-back Pain; Anxiety; Depression

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: TRIPLE

Study Groups

56-day skills-based VR program

participants in the EaseVRx-8w arm will participate in an 8-week interventional program and continue to be followed for 24 months following completion of tx

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

EaseVRx

Intervention Type: DEVICE

VR software with interactive content

56-day skills-based VR program followed by an extended 56-day on-demand period

participants in the EaseVRx-8w plus extended on-demand arm will enroll in an 8-week interventional program and be offered an extended 8-week ondemand period, and continue to be followed for 24 months after the completion of treatment

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

EaseVRx

Intervention Type: DEVICE

VR software with interactive content

56-day control (Sham VR)

participants in the first control arm will receive 2D Sham VR virtual reality content during the 8-week interventional program and continue to be followed for 24 months after the completion of treatment. participants in the Sham VR group will receive the same Pico G2 4K headset as participants in the immersive VR groups, but rather than view 360-degree, 3D, interactive content specially selected for efficacy, they will only have access to 2D nature footage with neutral music layered on top that is selected to be neither overly relaxing nor distracting. The experience of Sham VR is similar to watching a large-screen TV, but it is not interactive. The advantage of Sham VR is that it controls for the novelty and immersion of the hardware and isolates the effect of VR skill-based training

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

Sham VR

Intervention Type: DEVICE

VR with neutral non-interactive content

• 56-day control (Sham VR plus 8w extended on-demand)

participants in the second control arm will receive 2D Sham VR virtual reality content during the 8-week interventional program and be offered an extended 8-week on-demand period, after which they will continue to be followed for 24 months after the completion of treatment.Participants in the Sham VR group will receive the same Pico G2 4K headset as participants in the immersive VR groups, but rather than view 360-degree, 3D, interactive content specially selected for efficacy, they will only have access to 2D nature footage with neutral music layered on top that is selected to be neither overly relaxing nor distracting.

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

Sham VR

Intervention Type: DEVICE

VR with neutral non-interactive content

Interventions

EaseVRx

VR software with interactive content

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Sham VR

VR with neutral non-interactive content

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Other Intervention Names

Skills based EaseVR

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Male and female adults aged 18-85.
• Self-reported chronic low back pain that will be confirmed with claims data when available.
• Pain duration of at least three months.
• Average pain intensity score of ≥ 4 and average pain interference score of ≥ 4 on the 0-10 Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) Pain Scale for the past month at screening.
• Fluency in English.
• Willing and able to comply with all study procedures including all required restrictions for the duration of study participation.
• Able to give voluntary, written informed consent to participate and have signed an Informed Consent Form specific to this study.
• Access to Internet for the duration of their study participation (24 months).
• Access to a smartphone or computer for the duration of the study.
• Availability of a physical mailing address that is not a PO box address for receipt of the device.
• Completed the Baseline Survey plus at least two of the five sets of participant surveys that are administered during the 10-day pretreatment assessment period.
• Able to provide photo ID

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to understand the goals of the study due to cognitive difficulty.
• Any medical condition that may prevent the use of virtual reality (e.g., current, or prior diagnosis of epilepsy, seizure disorder, hypersensitivity to flashing light or motion, migraines, any medical condition predisposing participant to nausea or dizziness, dementia, absence of stereoscopic vision or severe hearing impairment).
• Injury to eyes, face, or neck that prevents comfortable use of VR.
• Index back pain is linked to a cancer-related diagnosis.
• Possible suicidal ideation as indicated by the 9th item of the Participant Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).
• Previous participation in the 2020 AVR EaseVRx pivotal study.
• Receiving worker's compensation and/or involved in any active litigation related to an injury.
• Current or recent participation (i.e., within the last 2 months) in any other research study involving a drug, device, vaccine, or other interventional treatment product; or plans to participate in another research study over the next 24 months.
• Participation of two or more members in one household
• Recent or future medical procedures scheduled related to any current diagnosis

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 85 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

AppliedVR Inc.

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Todd Maddox

VP of Research

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Todd Maddox, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

AppliedVR Inc.

Locations

AppliedVR

Van Nuys, California, United States

Countries

United States

References

Maddox T, Oldstone L, Linde-Zwirble W, Bonakdar R, Maddox R, Sackman J, Adair T, Ffrench K, Sparks C, Darnall BD. Differential treatment response to virtual reality in high-impact chronic pain: secondary analysis of a randomized trial. Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 25;15(1):14430. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-98716-3.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 40281004 (View on PubMed)

Maddox T, Oldstone L, Sparks CY, Sackman J, Oyao A, Garcia L, Maddox RU, Ffrench K, Garcia H, Adair T, Irvin A, Maislin D, Keenan B, Bonakdar R, Darnall BD. In-Home Virtual Reality Program for Chronic Lower Back Pain: A Randomized Sham-Controlled Effectiveness Trial in a Clinically Severe and Diverse Sample. Mayo Clin Proc Digit Health. 2023 Oct 24;1(4):563-573. doi: 10.1016/j.mcpdig.2023.09.003. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 40206316 (View on PubMed)

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol

View Document

Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

EaseVRx HEOR 2021

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id