Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan: Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy with Active Duty OIF/OEF Military Personnel with PTSD

6.9.2009 SPEAKER: Albert “Skip” Rizzo, PhD, Institute for Creative Technologies and Dept. of Psychiatry/School of Gerontology, University of Southern California MODERATOR: Kirby Vosburgh, PhD, CIMIT

Forum Abstract

War is perhaps one of the most stressful situations that a human being can experience. Such stressful experiences that are characteristic of warfighting environments have a high likelihood for producing significant numbers of returning soldiers at risk for developing PTSD. Among the many approaches that have been used to treat persons with PTSD, graduated exposure therapy involving the graded and repeated imaginal reliving of the traumatic event within the therapeutic setting appears to have the best-documented therapeutic efficacy. This treatment is believed to provide a low-threat context where the patient can therapeutically process the emotions that are relevant to the trauma and de-condition the avoidant learning cycle that maintains the disorder. Dr. Rizzo will detail his lab's successful application of an immersive Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan simulation for exposure therapy with active duty OIF/OEF military personnel and present data on 16 of 20 treatment completers who no longer met PTSD criteria after treatment.

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