NCT06814470

Virtual Reality Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment for Chronic Low Back Pain

Completed NA Results posted Last updated 26 January 2026

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Virtual reality guided imagery acupuncture treatment (VRGAIT) in Chronic Low-back Pain in 31 participants. Completed in 31 August 2025.

Timeline

16 July 2024

Primary endpoint
3 January 2025

31 August 2025

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Massachusetts General Hospital
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	double
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	31
Start date	16 July 2024
Primary completion	3 January 2025
Estimated completion	31 August 2025
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Virtual reality guided imagery acupuncture treatment (VRGAIT)
• Virtual reality guided imagery acupuncture treatment control

Conditions studied

• Chronic Low-back Pain — all drugs for Chronic Low-back Pain →

Sponsor

Massachusetts General Hospital

Who can join

Adults 18 to 75, any sex, with Chronic Low-back Pain. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov

Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.

Retention Primary · Through study intervention, an average of about four weeks

Proportion of subjects who complete all assessments from the total number of subjects who were enrolled in the study

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	14
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	14

Satisfaction to the Interventions Primary · up to 4 weeks

Mean of the satisfaction score on a scale from 1 to 5, larger number indicated greater satisfaction. Assessed after each study interventions, an average score is reported.,

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	4.7	± .33
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	3.9	± 1.0

Number of Adverse Events (Safety of the Intervention) Primary · Through study interventions, an average of about four weeks

Symptoms and adverse events reported by the participants

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	0
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	0

PROMIS-29 Secondary · baseline, midpoint (week 2), and post-treatment (week 4), the change of score (baseline minus post-treatment) is reported.

The PROMIS-29 profile measure assesses pain intensity using a single 0-10 numeric rating item and seven health domains (physical function, fatigue, pain interference, depressive symptoms, anxiety, ability to participate in social roles and activities, and sleep disturbance) using four items for each domain. We use pain intensity in this report, low score indicates improvement.

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	1	0.2 – 1.8
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	0.5	.3 – 1.3

Pain Bothersomeness Scale Secondary · baseline, midpoint (week 2), and post-treatment (week 4), the change of score (baseline minus post-treatment) is reported.

This is a self-reported measure of cLBP pain severity that is commonly used to assess clinical chronic pain. Participants rate how bothersome their LBP was during the previous week with a VAS scale (0-10) from "not at all bothersome" (0) to "extremely bothersome" (10).

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	2	0.8 – 3.2
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	0.71	0.5 – 1.9

MGH Acupuncture Sensation Scale (MASS) Secondary · up to 4 weeks.

MASS is a scale developed to measure sensations evoked by acupuncture treatment (total range 0-120). The MASS will be applied after each treatment. We reported total score in this report (average of sum of each session). larger numbers indicate stronger sensations.

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	9.0	± 10.0
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	4.5	± 5.3

Vividness Scale Secondary · After each study interventions, the average score is reported.

Vividness Scale is a 0-10 vividness scale to measure imagery vividness during the intervention. The scale ranges from Not Vivid/Unclear (0) to Vivid/Clear (10).

Group	Value	95% CI
Virtual Reality - Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT)	8.6	± 1.7
Virtual Reality -Guided Acupuncture Imagery Treatment (VRGAIT) Control	7.9	± 2.0

Sponsor's own description

Testing the effect of Virtual Reality - guided imagery acupuncture

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.