Patients placed in protective isolation, commonly because of neutropenia, frequently develop symptoms of anxiety. Prior literature has shown that both virtual reality interventions and hypnosis can relieve anxiety in hospital settings. This trial evaluated a combined approach, virtual reality hypnosis (VRH), which is intended to induce a hypnotic state while using immersive virtual reality delivery, to determine whether it reduces anxiety in patients undergoing protective isolation.
This was a parallel-group, open-label, single-center randomized controlled trial conducted in adult neutropenic patients scheduled for protective isolation in hospital. The trial was randomized and included two arms with equal allocation. Participant numbers per arm were 30 in the VRH group and 30 in the control group. The study reports the availability of S-anxiety questionnaire scores for 58 patients on day 1, 40 on day 2, and 30 on day 3, indicating some attrition of available assessments over the three-day intervention period.
Patients randomized to the intervention arm received a 20-minute session of virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) once daily for three consecutive days. The control arm received a control activity for the same duration and frequency. The manuscript describes the VRH intervention as designed to induce a state of hypnosis delivered through a virtual reality platform; the specific content and technical details of the VRH and control activities are not reported in the abstract. The study protocol (in French) is available from the authors on reasonable request.
The primary outcome was change in state anxiety assessed with the state component of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S-anxiety). The S-anxiety score was measured immediately before and immediately after each daily session. A secondary outcome was pain intensity measured with a visual analogue scale (VAS), also assessed before and after each session. These measures were collected across the three days of intervention.
Mean S-anxiety scores fell after both VRH and control sessions across the measurement points. The reported between-group comparison indicates a significantly greater reduction in S-anxiety for the VRH group compared with the control group. The mean reduction reported for the VRH group was -6.4 ± 9.6, and for the control group was -1.9 ± 5.3; this difference reached statistical significance with a reported p value of 0.03. The available S-anxiety data were for 58 patients on day 1, 40 patients on day 2, and 30 patients on day 3.
Pain ratings measured by VAS were low overall, reported as less than 2, and there was no difference between the VRH and control groups. The abstract does not provide additional quantitative detail on pain score distributions or change scores beyond stating low values and no between-group difference.
The trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04794608) with a registration date reported as 2021/03/03. The study was also registered with the French drug regulator ANSM under number 2020-A02561-38. The authors note that the study protocol (in French) is available from them upon reasonable request. In the conflict of interest statement the authors declared no competing interests.
The authors conclude that virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) was effective at reducing state anxiety in neutropenic patients undergoing protective isolation, compared with a control activity of equal duration, and therefore may be beneficial for this patient population. Pain was low at baseline and did not differ between groups. The abstract does not report long-term follow-up data or detailed subgroup analyses. Details about the exact VRH content, the nature of the control activity, adherence, tolerability, and possible adverse effects are not provided in the abstract and would require consultation of the full text or study protocol for further information.
Note: All results and procedural details above are taken from the published abstract. Where the abstract does not report specifics (for example, intervention content, control description, or full per-day participant numbers beyond questionnaire availability), those details were not reported in the source and are noted as such.