Virtual Walking Intervention for Neuropathic Pain in Spinal Cord Injury

Many people with SCI experience neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is often described as sharp, burning, or electric. 'Traditional' treatments often do not do a good job of reducing neuropathic pain. Therefore, it is important to see if 'non-traditional' treatments might work. Scientists think that neuropathic pain occurs in SCI because the sensations coming from the eyes and up the spinal cord to the brain do not match what the brain thinks it told the body to do. This 'mis-match' may result in changes in the brain that make neuropathic pain possible. Virtual reality walking reduces this 'mis-match.' It does this by creating the 'illusion' that the person is walking. The brain then thinks it is telling the body to walk AND the information coming from the eyes matches its instructions. This 'matching' may reverse the brain changes that made neuropathic pain possible. The current study is specifically focused on individuals whose SCI has been classified as complete (ASIA A).