Non-drug therapies, more commonly known as "non-drug interventions," are becoming increasingly widespread. As time goes on, their numbers are growing. It can therefore sometimes be difficult to navigate this landscape and distinguish between conventional medicine and more obscure practices.
Just like non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), virtual reality is developing as a complement to therapeutic and medicinal actions. Furthermore, virtual reality is regularly used in care processes that employ NPIs. We offer a brief overview of NPIs to clarify what is meant by these terms and to understand the current state of these practices. Then, we will examine the links between virtual reality and non-pharmacological interventions.
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What are non-drug interventions?
Grégory Ninot, professor at the University of Montpellier, research fellow at the Montpellier Cancer Institute, founder and director of the CEPS collaborative university platform, defined non-drug interventions .
According to him, an INM is “a psychological, physical, nutritional, digital or ergonomic intervention on a person aimed at preventing, treating or curing. It takes the form of a protocol. It is the subject of at least one positive interventional study conducted according to a recognized methodology, which has evaluated its benefits and risks”.
There are as many non-drug interventions as there are drugs, that is, approximately 10,000. Therefore, Grégory Ninot proposes the following classification table:
Source: CEPS Platform, Universities of Montpellier. 2020.
Non-invasive medical interventions (NIMs) allow patients to become active rather than passive in the face of their illness. This is an extremely positive factor, as psychiatrist Patrick Clervoy affirms, for whom healing is an active process.
Non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) have both preventive and therapeutic effects. The goal is to integrate these interventions into the care pathway of individuals who are ill or at risk of developing a disease. The fact that NPIs are based on science and qualitative research with positive results gives these practices renewed relevance.
Virtual reality and INM.
The objective of non-invasive medical interventions (NIMs) can be therapeutic, curative, or even preventative. Similarly, virtual reality is increasingly used in healthcare pathways. There are numerous examples of using virtual reality to treat phobias or as an alternative to anesthesia. It is therefore logical to see virtual reality integrated into the classification of different NIMs.
As a potential non-pharmacological intervention, virtual reality offers the advantage of having several applications . Indeed, it can serve as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of various mental illnesses or physical pain.
One could, for example, cite the use of virtual reality in eye movement therapy; this therapy is used particularly in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, virtual reality can be an extremely valuable tool in cognitive behavioral therapy. To this, we could add the advances in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease using virtual reality, as demonstrated by teams at the Nice University Hospital .
Finally, although this list is not exhaustive, we can also mention the presence of virtual reality in meditation exercises, but especially in the development of heart coherence practices. This practice has numerous benefits for our mental and physical health and helps everyone, whether they are ill or not.
