The Effectiveness of Technology-Enhanced Relaxation Techniques for Military Medical Warriors

Stetz, Melba C.; Kaloi-Chen, Janalle Y.; Turner, David D.; Bouchard, Stéphane; Riva, Giuseppe; Wiederhold, Brenda K.

doi:10.7205/milmed-d-10-00393

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The restorative effects of nature have been replicated using exposure to real nature (Berman et al, 2008;Bratman, Daily, Levy, & Gross, 2015), exposure to videos of nature (De Kort et al, 2006;Van den Berg et al, 2003), and even using immersive virtual nature walks (Valtchanov, Barton, & Ellard, 2010). Nature exposure therapy has been found to be effective for clinical stress management (Villani & Riva, 2012), and stress and anxiety reduction for deployed military medics (Stetz et al, 2011). Nature posters and plants in hospital waiting rooms have been shown to reduce patient stress (Beukeboom, Langeveld, & Tanja-Dijkstra, 2012) and even perceptions of pain after undergoing painful bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (Lechtzin et al, 2010).…”

Section: Restorative Effects Of Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive and affective responses to natural scenes: Effects of low level visual properties on preference, cognitive load and eye-movements

Valtchanov

Ellard

2015

Journal of Environmental Psychology

140

136

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Section: Restorative Effects Of Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive and affective responses to natural scenes: Effects of low level visual properties on preference, cognitive load and eye-movements

Valtchanov

Ellard

2015

Journal of Environmental Psychology

140

136

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“…We also evaluated the applicability of the identified body of literature to the military health system. The study populations in the included studies were primarily civilians, with only nine of the studies documenting a military population (Luxton et al, 2016;Stetz et al, 2011;Ruskin, 2004;Pyne et al, 2010;Mohr et al, 2005;Mohr et al, 2011;Kahn, Collinge, and Soltysik, 2016;Fortney et al, 2007;Egede et al, 2015). Of these military studies, seven were treating depression, one anxiety, and one was transdiagnostic.…”

Section: Quality'of'evidence'mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of Technology to Augment Clinical Care in Depression and Anxiety Disorders: An Evidence Map

Maher¹,

Apaydin²,

Raaen³

et al. 2019

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“…In recent years, VR has been used in different clinical protocols to facilitate relaxation processes in stressed or anxious subjects [63-65] by visually presenting relaxing scenes [34,66]. The IR relaxation environments were created on the basis of similar virtual relaxing environments validated in previous studies [34,64,67-69].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The IR relaxation environments were created on the basis of similar virtual relaxing environments validated in previous studies [34,64,67-69]. They included a beach, a lake with a waterfall, a campfire in a mountain resort, and a desert oasis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A preliminary attempt, developed by the US Army, was tested for the training of military medical professionals who are expected to take care of the wounded in very austere situations. This protocol included a technology-assisted relaxation training merging VR exposure sessions with relaxing videos with embedded English narratives guiding progressive muscle relaxation and controlled breathing [34]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experiential Virtual Scenarios With Real-Time Monitoring (Interreality) for the Management of Psychological Stress: A Block Randomized Controlled Trial

Gaggioli¹,

Pallavicini²,

Morganti³

et al. 2014

J Med Internet Res

Self Cite

119

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BackgroundThe recent convergence between technology and medicine is offering innovative methods and tools for behavioral health care. Among these, an emerging approach is the use of virtual reality (VR) within exposure-based protocols for anxiety disorders, and in particular posttraumatic stress disorder. However, no systematically tested VR protocols are available for the management of psychological stress.ObjectiveOur goal was to evaluate the efficacy of a new technological paradigm, Interreality, for the management and prevention of psychological stress. The main feature of Interreality is a twofold link between the virtual and the real world achieved through experiential virtual scenarios (fully controlled by the therapist, used to learn coping skills and improve self-efficacy) with real-time monitoring and support (identifying critical situations and assessing clinical change) using advanced technologies (virtual worlds, wearable biosensors, and smartphones).MethodsThe study was designed as a block randomized controlled trial involving 121 participants recruited from two different worker populations—teachers and nurses—that are highly exposed to psychological stress. Participants were a sample of teachers recruited in Milan (Block 1: n=61) and a sample of nurses recruited in Messina, Italy (Block 2: n=60). Participants within each block were randomly assigned to the (1) Experimental Group (EG): n=40; B1=20, B2=20, which received a 5-week treatment based on the Interreality paradigm; (2) Control Group (CG): n=42; B1=22, B2=20, which received a 5-week traditional stress management training based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); and (3) the Wait-List group (WL): n=39, B1=19, B2=20, which was reassessed and compared with the two other groups 5 weeks after the initial evaluation.ResultsAlthough both treatments were able to significantly reduce perceived stress better than WL, only EG participants reported a significant reduction (EG=12% vs CG=0.5%) in chronic “trait” anxiety. A similar pattern was found for coping skills: both treatments were able to significantly increase most coping skills, but only EG participants reported a significant increase (EG=14% vs CG=0.3%) in the Emotional Support skill.ConclusionsOur findings provide initial evidence that the Interreality protocol yields better outcomes than the traditionally accepted gold standard for psychological stress treatment: CBT. Consequently, these findings constitute a sound foundation and rationale for the importance of continuing future research in technology-enhanced protocols for psychological stress management.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01683617; http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01683617 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6QnziHv3h).

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The Effectiveness of Technology-Enhanced Relaxation Techniques for Military Medical Warriors

Cited by 35 publications

References 19 publications

Cognitive and affective responses to natural scenes: Effects of low level visual properties on preference, cognitive load and eye-movements

Cognitive and affective responses to natural scenes: Effects of low level visual properties on preference, cognitive load and eye-movements

The Use of Technology to Augment Clinical Care in Depression and Anxiety Disorders: An Evidence Map

Experiential Virtual Scenarios With Real-Time Monitoring (Interreality) for the Management of Psychological Stress: A Block Randomized Controlled Trial

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