Research
Publications
Whitepaper
KarunaHome Functional Rehabilitation Program Whitepaper:
Clinical Evidence
Karuna Labs Inc. has developed the Karuna Virtual Embodiment Training™ (KVET™) system to address the need for alternative, non-invasive, non-pharmalogical methods to treat chronic pain. KVET™ uses a combination of movement sensors and embodied avatars that provide visual feedback during chronic pain functional rehabilitation. Our key innovation is the application of virtual reality (VR) to perform exposure therapy in a cognitive behavioral therapy protocol designed to treat chronic pain through neurocognitive retraining. Karuna Labs utilizes sensory reprocessing done through virtual reality and behavioral health coaching to unlearn chronic pain patterns.
Research Pipeline
INSTITUTION
DESIGN | STATUS
PI
Penn Medicine
A randomized controlled trial on patients with chronic low back pain
Status: Ongoing, actively recruiting
Dr. Michael Ashburn, MD, MPH, MBA.
Director, Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Karuna Labs
A randomized controlled trial on KarunaHOME for patients with general chronic shoulder pain
Status: Ongoing, actively recruiting
Dr. Michael Trujillo, PhD
VP of Clinical Affairs, Karuna Labs
UCSF
Inpatient Trial: PRISM (Pain Relief with Individualized brain StiMulation)
Status: Ongoing, actively recruiting
Dr. Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD
Neurologist and Pain Medicine Specialist UCSF Dept. of Anesthesia
Georgia State University
Validation and feasibility of KarunaHOME for use in physical therapy
Status: Ongoing, actively recruiting
Dr. Sujay Galen, PhD
Chair, Department of Physical Therapy, Georgia State University
Clinical Evidence on VR and Rehabilitation
480
Journal articles *
93
Randomized
controlled trials *
26
Meta-analyses articles *
*Searched by Karuna Labs, Inc. March 2021
Select Peer-Reviewed Research
DESIGN Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial
Self-administered VR therapy for chronic pain improves pain intensity and pain-related interference with activity, mood, and stress
DESIGN Randomized controlled trial
VR significantly reduces pain versus an active control condition in hospitalized patients (N = 120; 61 VR; 59 Control)
DESIGN Randomized controlled trial
Virtual reality had large significant effect in reducing sensitivity to pain in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain (N = 84; 42 VR; 42 control)
DESIGN Randomized controlled trial
Immersive VR significantly improved pain, kinesiophobia, fatigue, physical activity and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients
DESIGN Experimental
Visual augmentation in VR induced compensation and unconscious motor adaptation
DESIGN Experimental
Body movement reduces pain intensity in virtual reality–based analgesia
Moving in immersive virtual reality increases the analgesic effects of VR
DESIGN Feasibility