Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Assessment and Treatment (PTSD)
The Virtual Reality (VR) Assessment and Treatment of Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) project develops immersive virtual environment applications for the treatment of Iraq War veterans diagnosed with PTSD. This project is funded as part of a larger multi-year effort by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR). The project uses a VR environment as the basis of treatment, whereby a veteran with PTSD can experience a combat-relevant scenario in a low-threat context to therapeutically process emotions and decondition the effects of the disorder.
By recycling virtual graphic assets built for the combat tactical simulation training game, Full Spectrum Warrior and other ICT assets, the project is able to build prototypes quickly and cost-effectively. With the help of ONR, this project brings together the technical, clinical, and creative forces of ICT, Virtually Better, Inc., and the Virtual Reality Medical Center (VRMC) to help veterans overcome the effects of PTSD and restore quality of life to them and their families.
This project differs from others in the following ways:
- It delivers a comprehensive range of objective VR exposure scenarios that can be tailored to the individual experiences of a person with PTSD (Other research uses “imaginal” therapy.)
- It contains a “Wizard of Oz” clinician’s interface that enables the clinician to control the virtual environment in real time to modulate patient anxiety level as is required for therapeutic gain.
Goals
- Build the Virtual Iraq PTSD application, with design input from returning Iraq War military personnel
- Establish agreements with multiple clinical test sites (e.g., Wiell Cornell Medical Center in New York City, the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, the Providence Rhode Island VA Medical Center, and others) and begin clinical testing with the application.
- Conduct empirical research on the diagnostic validity and clinical efficacy of the system
- Conduct research on psychophysiological monitoring as an aid to diagnosis and treatment
- Develop and test pre-combat Stress Inoculation Virtual Reality scenarios with VRMC