The effects of the Lion's Den Room on patient
recovery and pain management were purely
speculative prior to the opening of the first
room. The CiC Foundation theorized that the
distraction of video games and TV would serve to
stimulate recovery times for the patients.
Recently, a pair of pediatric professionals have
discovered medical explanations to support the
anecdotal observations we've seen in the Lion's
Den Rooms that have been installed to date.
Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer director of the Pediatric
Pain program at UCLA's Mattel Children's
Hospital recently conducted a study called,
"Diminishing Pain by Distraction". She
determined that positive mood and comfort
actually changes activity in the nerve
connections and the chemical environment that
bathes the brain in very powerful ways and can
actually turn off pain perception.
She theorized that there is a medical
explanation as to why children playing video
games or watching TV are less likely to feel
pain from injury or surgery. She said, "If the
cognitive brain is involved in another activity,
there is no room for the pain signals to get
through. When a child watches TV or plays a
video game, like a magnet, chemical activity in
the pain perception area of their brain is
drained away and the kids report feeling less
painful sensations."
Lyn Dahlquist, a psychologist at the University
of Maryland took that research another step
forward. In an effort to show that video games
could be used to help manage pain in
post-operative patients, she conducted an
experiment. She theorized that there was a
Conditioned Anxiety Reaction when a patient was
about to experience pain.
Dr. Dahlquist placed a patient in a dark room
with no outside stimulus. Then, utilizing ice
water to simulate the pain of an injection, the
patient's hand was placed in a tub of ice water.
Almost instantly, the patient pulled his hand
from the water in reaction to the severe cold.
Next, the audio from a video game was piped in
the dark room, and again the patient's hand was
dipped in ice water. It took a couple of seconds
for the patient to register the pain of his
hand, and remove it from the water.
Finally, the patient played a video game and was
completely distracted from the ice bucket. The
patient kept his hand in the ice water three
times longer than when he was exposed to the ice
water in the dark and quiet room.
This mirrors the results we've seen in Lion's
Den Rooms in Westchester and Buffalo. It is best
expressed by one mother who said, "Look at my
daughter, laughing and playing that video game.
Five minutes ago, she didn't even want to get
out of bed. Look at her now, she doesn't even
know she's in a hospital!" |
