Virtual Reality, Other Technologies Offer Hope for PTSD

/ Author:  / Reviewed by: Joseph V. Madia, MD

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) threatens to overload health care and social support systems worldwide as the number of cases rises and existing treatments are not sufficiently effective.
New treatment approaches are relying on technology, such as virtual reality, to alleviate the psychologically damaging effects of PTSD, and these innovative solutions are explored in a special issue of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

PTSD is common in soldiers returning from combat duty and some survivors of disasters and accidents, but the mental health disorder may also result from sexual or physical assault, imprisonment or hostage situations, terrorism or diagnosis with a life-threatening illness. Conventional approaches to treatment, including antidepressant medication and psychotherapy, yield unacceptable recovery rates.

Exposure therapy has been recognized as a highly promising method for treating patients with PTSD. Rather than relying on patients' visualization skills to relive the traumatic experience, technologies such as virtual reality provide a controlled environment in which patients can experience a situation or scenario while learning to cope with their emotional responses.

Virtual reality has the potential to play an important role in treating survivors of mass casualty disasters, for example. Countries can implement this tool and the available handheld VR technology as part of a comprehensive plan to respond to the mental health needs of mass casualty survivors.

"We are so fortunate in being able to learn from our patients who give us invaluable feedback and important information so that we may continuously improve treatment protocols" says Brenda K. Wiederhold, Ph.D., editor-in-chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. "We thank those who have shared their memories and experiences for the benefit of others."

Contact:
Vicki Cohn
914-740-2156
vcohn@liebertpub.com

Review Date: 
September 20, 2010