Affiliations: [a]
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, MI, USA
| [b]
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| [c]
Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Lucile Packard Children’sHospital Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, PaloAlto, CA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Alan T. Nguyen, MD, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, 586 Pioneer Dr, Rochester, MI 48309, USA. Tel.: +1 2483702100; E-mail: alannguyen@oakland.edu.
Abstract: Virtual reality (VR) technology has seen increasing use in physical rehabilitation and in the management of acute and chronic pain. Functional movement disorders (FMDs) are a source of disability with no known association to neurologic pathology, and patients are generally offered multidisciplinary treatment approaches to improve functional movement. However, patients who are not compliant with rehabilitation may have persistent FMD and long-term disability. Given VR’s use in physical rehabilitation, it may serve as a useful adjunct for the management of FMD. Utilizing an application called MovementTM to create a playlist of targeted applications for the restoration of motor function and balance, this case study presents the application of VR as a tool to engage patients in physical therapy for the management of FMD. The VR games were selected to encourage movement while customization of levels within the games facilitated achievement of physical therapy goals. Physical rehabilitation aided by VR, when used in collaboration with a multidisciplinary care team, may be used to facilitate recovery from FMD.
Keywords: Functional movement disorder, functional neurologic disorder, psychogenic movement disorder, conversion disorder, dyskinesias, virtual reality
