Controling Pain After Orthopedic Trauma

The treatment of postoperative pain after severe trauma is poorly understood, and it can lead to chronic pain, opiate drug addiction and elevated health care costs. The proposed project will be a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an innovative methodology for delivering clinical hypnosis (virtual reality hypnosis) for pain control as well as a more time-honored delivery system that uses audio recordings. The goal will be to reduce postoperative pain in a sample of patients hospitalized for the care of severe orthopedic trauma and other types trauma. This proposal will test innovative and low-risk approaches to reducing postoperative trauma pain that are designed to reduce pain, anxiety and other complications after surgery. The findings have the potential not only to reduce pain and suffering in patients who have suffered severe trauma but could be applicable to the millions of people who have surgery every year. Reducing addictive opiate-based medication and health care costs are both potential outcomes from this project.