Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following September 11, 2001

Virtual and Mixed Reality

“…In their case study, Difede and Hoffman [1] found that their patient, who suffered PTSD as a result of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, reported a 90% reduction rate of PTSD symptoms after completing VRET using a Virtual World Trade Center environment. In follow-up studies, Difede and colleagues [9,30] also found that VRET was significantly more effective in PTSD symptom reduction than their waitlist control condition. In fact, in these methodologically rigorous studies, those in the treatment groups showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms -seven of the ten participants no longer met criteria for PTSD following treatment [9].…”

“…In follow-up studies, Difede and colleagues [9,30] also found that VRET was significantly more effective in PTSD symptom reduction than their waitlist control condition. In fact, in these methodologically rigorous studies, those in the treatment groups showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms -seven of the ten participants no longer met criteria for PTSD following treatment [9]. Most recently, reports have shown positive preliminary support for Virtual Iraq.…”

“…Recently Virtual Reality (VR) has been introduced to exposure-based therapy of PTSD and is known as Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy or VRET [1,4,9]. VRET may benefit those with combat-related PTSD in its ability to present life-like scenarios via a medium which may be particularly suited to service members.…”

“…VR technology allows users to interact with a computer-simulated virtual environment (VE). In VR, input devices (e.g., head tracking devices) sense the user"s motions and modify the synthetic environment accordingly, while output devices immerse the user in the VE by producing visual, auditory (through head-mounted devices with screens that project the sights and sounds of the VE), olfactory (by devices that emit scents) and haptic feed-back (e.g., vibration platforms located under the patient) sensations [9,10,20,22,23]. Currently, most VR systems include a clinical interface which displays the VE as seen by the patient [22,23] and others also include non-invasive physiological measures both of which are displayed on a monitor allowing the clinician to observe the patient"s experience and to adjust the intensity and duration of the exposure session accordingly [14].…”

“…This is problematic as the inability to engage in treatment predicts worse outcomes [24]. Encouragingly, research suggests that VR may facilitate emotional engagement by augmenting patients" imaginative capacities while circumventing the natural avoidance tendency of patients with PTSD through delivering sensory cues without requiring the patient actively imagine their traumatic memories [3,9]. This directive, multi-sensory experience helps recreate and reprocess traumatic memories and increases the engagement and efficacy of the therapeutic intervention [2,9].…”