Virtual Reality Is a Viable Rehabilitation Tool in Patients with Cerebral Palsy

Introduction 

    For anyone who has ever had to do extensive physical therapy, you know as well as I do that it begins to get mentally and physically draining doing the same types of exercises. Now, what if you were someone who had a lifelong condition such as cerebral Palsy and you were in and out of therapy for years or even for life? For many people that is the reality, this often leads to patients burning out and ultimately giving up on their therapy programs. Virtual Reality is a great way to not only help provide clinicians with a new tool to incorporate into their programs but it keeps therapy fun. Virtual Reality according to research is also effective in improving motor function and motor development in cerebral palsy patients. 

What is Cerebral Palsy

    Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affects one’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. CP is caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the brain that affects the use of the individual’s muscles. There are several types of CP that can cause Quadriplegia, Diplegia, or Hemiplegia. The four types of Cp are Spastic being the most common form, Dyskinetic, Ataxic, and mixed type.  

Benefits of Virtual Reality 

   Virtual reality has many benefits including: 

  • systems are available for in-home use 
  • keep conventional therapy programs from getting stale
  • wide verity of systems available to best fit the needs of the patient
  • vast selection of games 
  • does improve motor development and motor function 
Some of the systems used that showed positive results were the Wii Fit, Xbox Kinect, Oculus, Playstation VR, and some more advanced systems that are not practical for in-home use but would be best used in a patient care facility. 

Other exciting news about virtual reality I found while conducting my research was a handful of studies compared results of different demographics of people including cerebral palsy, post stroke, spinal injuries, and normally developing/ healthy individuals. What they found is that regardless of the conditions of the patients virtual reality improved peoples balance, reaction time, motor function, and motor learning after virtual interventions were applied.  


 



 

 

Practical implications 

     

     According to my research virtual reality is most effective when it is paired with or incorporated into conventional methods of therapy. Yes, virtual reality did show improvements is just about every study I looked at but, I do not think virtual reality is ready to replace conventional methods of therapy. If I were to make my own physical therapy program for a patient, I would continue conventional methods and when I saw the patient getting fatigued or burnt out, I would mix in or create a “fun” day for him/her using virtual reality. I would also recommend to the patient/ caregiver that if your willing to spend the money, normally around a few hundred dollars or so getting a virtual reality system for the home would be a great idea it not only is something the patient can do for fun but also get them up and moving. 


For more on cerebral palsy go to: 
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/cp/facts.html
https://cerebralpalsy.org.au/our-research/about-cerebral-palsy/what-is-cerebral-palsy/types-of-cerebral-palsy/ 

About the author:

   Nick Chambers is currently a senior studying Movement Science with a concentration in Sports Medicine at Westfield State University. He plans on having a career in the medical field when he is done with his continuing education. Feel free to contact him at nchambers8752@westfield.ma.edu

 
























Comments