Doctors might have just discovered a new use for VR headsets normally used for gaming - and to think people complain about this hardware causing motion sickness. In a small independent study, emergency medicine specialists at Ankaha Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara, Turkey, have found that a combination of peaceful VR environments and classical music can lower blood pressure and stress levels more quickly than regular medication.
"Patients who arrive in the emergency department with markedly elevated blood pressure—readings of 180 mmHg or higher on the top number, or 110 mmHg or higher on the bottom number—are extremely common", said Dr. Safa Dönmez, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Health Sciences in Ankara.
"The emergency department environment itself—the noise, the bright lights, the uncertainty—can make that worse. This made me wonder: if we could help patients feel calmer, could we also help their blood pressure come down faster?"
This led him and his colleagues, including Dr Kadir Yenal, to create and publish a study surrounding the use of VR in this specific medical scenario. The pair then presented their results at EUSEM 2026 (European Emergency Medicine Congress).
65 Patients who came into the ER were randomly assigned to a testing group if they had a case of hypertensive urgency, and a control group of 65 was also tested to compare results with.
All of them received the standard blood pressure medication they'd be prescribed anyway, but members of the main study group were also given a VR headset that displayed the following calming nature scene - a bit like that recurring Xen monk meditation sidequest in Cyberpunk 2077.
At the same time, they were played classical music playlists by composers known for their calming qualities. The music was played separately on a smartphone - personally, I would have just thrown on Walkabout Mini Golf for the patients, as the calming environments and chill soundtrack would kill two birds with one stone.
هەفتانە هەرسکردنەکان، چیرۆکەکانی ئەو کۆمەڵگایانەی کە خۆشت دەوێن و زۆر شتی تر
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.gamesradar.com/hardware/vr/doctors-experimented-with-gaming-vr-headsets-in-an-er-finding-that-a-few-minutes-in-a-peaceful-virtual-forest-while-listening-to-mozart-can-help-lower-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-for-patients
