The rapid growth in the use of smartphones has opened a new world of opportunities for use in behavioral health care. Mobile phone software applications (apps) are available for a variety of useful tasks to include symptom assessment, psychoeducation, resource location, and tracking of treatment progress. The latest two-way communication functionality of smartphones also brings new capabilities for telemental health. There is very little information available, however, regarding the integration of smartphone and other mobile technology into care. In this paper, we provide an overview of smartphone use in behavioral health care and discuss options for integrating mobile technology into clinical practice. We also discuss limitations, practical issues, and recommendations.

PE is an efficacious treatment for active-duty Army soldiers with PTSD from deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan. Results extend previous evidence supporting the efficacy of PE to active-duty military personnel and raise important questions for future research on VRE. (PsycINFO Database Record

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.

Numerous reports indicate that the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning OEF/OIF military personnel is creating a significant healthcare 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. This article details how virtual reality applications are being designed and implemented across various points in the military deployment cycle to prevent, identify and treat combat-related PTSD in OIF/OEF Service Members and Veterans. The summarized projects in these areas have been developed at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, a U.S. Army University Affiliated Research Center, and this paper will detail efforts to use virtual reality to deliver exposure therapy, assess PTSD and cognitive function and provide stress resilience training prior to deployment.