New Scientist Covers Study Showing Effectiveness of ICT’s Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD

A story in New Scientist featured preliminary results of a Navy study that found that virtual reality exposure therapy, including ICT’s Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan, helped post-traumatic stress sufferers find relief from their symptoms. Robert McLay of the U.S. Naval Medical Center led a study that compared individuals treated with virtual reality exposure therapy with others treated with standard exposure therapy. The article reports that after nine weeks of treatment both groups showed a reduction of symptoms but three months after treatment, the improvements for the non-VR group had largely disappeared but the VR group’s improvements continued. McLay used the virtual reality treatment developed by Skip Rizzo in the MedVR Lab at ICT as part of his study and reported his findings at the annual conference of the American Psychiatric Association.