Virtual Reality Reduces Preoperative Anxiety Without Medication, Suggest RCT
A recent prospective interventional randomized clinical trial published in Research and Innovation in Anesthesia in February 2026 reveals that virtual reality is a powerful, drug-free alternative to standard presurgical sedatives. By drastically reducing anxiety scores from 17.72 to 11.72, this immersive technology offers a highly engaging and effective way to calm patients and stabilize vital signs before surgery.
Preoperative anxiety is a widely recognized clinical challenge typically managed with medications, but prior evidence indicates that immersive distraction can effectively induce relaxation without adverse pharmacological effects; addressing the need for non-drug adjuncts in perioperative care, Dr. Tejaswini R. Jujjavarapu from the Department of Anesthesia at Malla Reddy Medical College for Women and colleagues aimed to evaluate how a brief VR intervention compares to traditional oral alprazolam in adult surgical patients.
Therefore, the prospective interventional randomized clinical trial evaluated 50 healthy adult surgical patients to compare the effects of a 10-minute virtual reality session versus standard alprazolam on preoperative anxiety and overall patient satisfaction.
Key Clinical Findings of the Trial Includes:
Anxiety Reduction: Researchers revealed that both study groups experienced notable improvements, with the VR cohort’s APAIS scores declining significantly from 17.72 to 11.72 and the alprazolam group dropping from 19.00 to 9.92.
Systolic Normalization: Researchers observed significant drops in systolic blood pressure (SBP) across both interventions, falling from 134.76 to 123.84 mm Hg in the technology arm and from 140.28 to 126.56 mm Hg in the control arm.
Diastolic Maintenance: Researchers noted that while diastolic blood pressure (DBP) remained completely stable at 80.16 mm Hg for the headset users, it decreased significantly to 74.72 mm Hg for those taking traditional medication.
Heart Rate Stabilization: Researchers documented marked heart rate (HR) reductions to an identical post-intervention mean of 86.12 beats per minute in both study branches, confirming comparable physiological relaxation.
Patient Satisfaction: Researchers reported that VAS scores were highly similar between the immersive intervention (35.20) and pharmacological (34.40) cohorts, demonstrating excellent and equal clinical acceptability.
The results suggest that VR-based preoperative education provides an engaging, comfortable approach that substantially reduces apprehension and offers a highly effective alternative to standard medication. This digital distraction meaningfully lowers presurgical distress without sacrificing patient satisfaction or physiological stability.
Integrating these immersive distraction strategies into routine preoperative protocols could ease both the psychological and physiological burdens of surgical anticipation, potentially improving overall perioperative experiences without exposing patients to the lingering side effects commonly associated with sedative drugs.
While the current investigation is somewhat limited by a small sample size, subjective self-reported measures, lack of blinding, and single-center execution, these encouraging initial outcomes gently invite broader multicenter trials to validate the sustained longitudinal benefits of this digital tool.
Reference
Jujjavarapu TR, Bhangi MSKVVG, Rapaka SA, Vudithyala S, Poornima S. The Role of Virtual Reality Technology in Reducing Preoperative Anxiety in Patients Undergoing General Anesthesia: A Prospective Interventional Randomized Clinical Study. Res and Innov Anesth 2025;10(2):39–44.
