Development and early evaluation of the Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan exposure therapy system for combat-related PTSD.
Numerous reports indicate that the growing incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) military personnel is creating a significant health care and economic challenge. These findings have served to motivate research on how to better develop and disseminate evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Virtual reality-delivered exposure therapy for PTSD has been previously used with reports of positive outcomes. The current paper will detail the development and early results from use of the Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan exposure therapy system. The system consists of a series of customizable virtual scenarios designed to represent relevant Middle Eastern contexts for exposure therapy, including a city and desert road convoy environment. The process for gathering user-centered design feedback from returning OEF/OIF military personnel and from a system deployed in Iraq (as was needed to iteratively evolve the system) will be discussed, along with a brief summary of results from an open clinical trial using Virtual Iraq with 20 treatment completers, which indicated that 16 no longer met PTSD checklist-military criteria for PTSD after treatment.
Institute for Creative Technologies, Department of Psychiatry and School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Playa Vista, California 90094, USA. arizzo@usc.edu
Albert Skip
AS
Rizzo
JoAnn
J
Difede
Barbara O
BO
Rothbaum
Greg
G
Reger
Josh
J
Spitalnick
Judith
J
Cukor
Rob
R
McLay
D000328:Adult; D055826:Afghan Campaign 2001-; D003201:Computers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007171:Implosive Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012984:Software; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000628:therapy*; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult