Virtual Vietnam: A Virtual Environment for the Treatment of Vietnam War Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most disabling psychopathological conditions affecting the veteran population. An estimated 830,000 U.S. veterans currently have symptoms of chronic combat-related PTSD. No thrapeutic approach has proven to be consistently effective in the management of combat-related PTSD. Behavior therapies with an exposure element have proven more effective than most other types of treatment, but a significant number of patients do not seem to benefit from them, possibly due to difficulties imagining, visualizing, or describing their traumatic experiences. In this report we describe Virtual Vietnam, a set of two virtual environments we have developed for the treatment of combat-related PTSD, and their use as one component of a comprehensive treatment program.

Publication
International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-Existence