title: Physiological reactivity to nonideographic virtual reality stimuli in veterans with and without PTSD.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) currently is diagnosed via clinical interview in which subjective self reports of traumatic events and associated experiences are discussed with a mental health professional. The reliability and validity of diagnoses can be improved with the use of objective physiological measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, physiological activity was recorded from 58 male veterans (PTSD Diagnosis n = 16; Trauma Exposed/No PTSD Diagnosis: n = 23; No Trauma/No PTSD Diagnosis: n = 19) with and without PTSD and combat trauma exposure in response to emotionally evocative non-idiographic virtual reality stimuli.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistically significant differences among the Control, Trauma, and PTSD groups were present during the viewing of two virtual reality videos. Skin conductance and interbeat interval features were extracted for each of ten video events (five events of increasing severity per video). These features were submitted to three stepwise discriminant function analyses to assess classification accuracy for Control versus Trauma, Control versus PTSD, and Trauma versus PTSD pairings of participant groups. Leave-one-out cross-validation classification accuracy was between 71 and 94%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results are promising and suggest the utility of objective physiological measures in assisting with PTSD diagnosis.
authors: The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors: Andrea K
authors: AK
authors: Webb
authors: The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors: Ashley L
authors: AL
authors: Vincent
authors: The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors: Alvin B
authors: AB
authors: Jin
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, Illinois.
authors: Mark H
authors: MH
authors: Pollack
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D014728:Veterans; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology
keywords: classification accuracy; diagnosis; interbeat interval; post-traumatic stress disorder; skin conductance
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