Is Clinical Virtual Reality the Future of Therapy?

Published: June 28, 2017
Category: News

Between eight and 18 percent of American veterans returning from wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have some form of PTSD. Stigma against seeking care remains, and among those who do, the results aren’t great: a recent editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association—Psychiatry called out an “ongoing crisis” in PTSD care. An average of 28 percent, and as many as 40 percent of patients drop out of treatment programs, and those who do finish have no guarantee the symptoms will decrease.
Into this comes Bravemind, a virtual reality therapy program lead by Albert “Skip” Rizzo at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has helped thousands of veterans.
Thrive Global talked with Dr. Skip Rizzo about VR exposure therapy and what it means for both clinicians and patients. Read the full article here.