OVeRcomING COPD: Virtual Reality and Savoring to Promote the Well-Being of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The Department of Psychology of the Catholic University of Milan has developed a relaxation VR-based intervention enhanced with savoring strategies in COPD patients in collaboration with Become-Hub and the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Unit of IRCCS INRCA (Italian National Research Centre on Aging) Casatenovo (LC). In particular, immersive experiences have been proposed to enhance attention shifting and distract patients from negative feelings (e.g., fatigue, dyspnea, and monotony) and to motivate them when exercising. The use of virtual natural scenarios to promote relaxation alongside pulmonary rehabilitation represents a promising alternative especially for hospitalized patients with chronic illnesses who can't move in natural outdoor environments. To verify the efficacy of the developed protocol, a randomized controlled trial will be conducted. Together with the traditional pulmonary rehabilitation, the experimental group will take part in the relaxation intervention integrated with VR scenarios of the augmented well-being protocol provided by the Italian VR company Become-Hub (https://en.discoverbecome.com), while the control group will listen to relaxing music. The intervention will last 2 weeks and will include four sessions, each lasting 20 minutes. In each session, participants of the experimental group will watch a relaxing virtual scenario integrated with a narrative voice and lasting about 10 minutes. For instance, in “the secret garden,” participants will be accompanied on a walk inside a Japanese garden on a sunny day. In “the beach at sunset,” the narrative voice will guide the participants on a walk along the beach until sunset arrives, while in “the waterfall in the prairie,” participants will encounter flowers, lakes, and waterfalls during a walk in the prairie.