Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009

EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009: Understanding Violence
S-23
50
February 11-13 2009
re-e X p o s u r e t o co m b a t in vi r t u a l re a li
t y a s a tr e a t m e n t f o r ptsD (co n t .)
Rizzo, Albert
Institute for Creative Technologies University of Southern
California, USA
or before deployment (9.4%). Furthermore, the prevalence of PTSD among
SMs deployed to Iraq increased in a linear manner with the number of firefights
experienced, such that PTSD rates were 4.5% for those involved in no
firefights and increased to 19.3% for those involved in more than five firefights.
Hoge et al., [6] in a more recent study analyzed the Post Deployment
Health Assessment (PDHA) responses of over 300,000 SMs after deployment
to Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the PDHA uses a different screening tool
for PTSD, (the Primary Care PTSD screen; PC-PTSD), results were similar to
previous research indicating that the PTSD rates for SMs deployed to Iraq
were higher than the PTSD rates for SMs deployed to Afghanistan. Also,
SMs who screened positive for any mental health concern were more likely
to leave military service within a year after deployment, and their mental
health concerns are likely to persist. Seal and colleagues [7], in a recent
study of 103,788 OIF/OEF veterans seen at VA health facilities, reported
that 31% received mental health/or psychological diagnoses and that 16%
of veterans who sought treatment at VA facilities between September 2001
and September 2005 met criteria for PTSD. Furthermore, these estimates
were made before the violence escalated in the last 2 years, and the number
of persons affected is likely to have grown in step with the intensity of
the conflict. For example, VA statistics report that there were 19,356 OIF/
OEF veterans receiving compensation for PTSD as of March 2006, while five
months after in August 2006, 34,380 discharged soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan
were diagnosed by the VA with PTSD, of the 63,767 diagnosed
with a mental disorder with current estimates suggesting approximately
300,000 OIF/OEF Veterans at risk for developing PTSD [8]. These findings
highlight the need and potential value in addressing this problem early, intensively
and with the best non-stigmatizing treatment tools available for
combat veterans still in service as well as upon discharge.
Among the many approaches that have been used to treat PTSD, exposure
therapy appears to have the best-documented therapeutic efficacy. Such
treatment typically involves the graded and repeated imaginal reliving of
the traumatic event within the therapeutic setting and is believed to provide
a low-threat context where the patient can begin to therapeutically process
trauma-relevant emotions as well as de-condition the learning cycle of the
disorder via a habituation/extinction process. While the efficacy of imaginal
exposure has been established in multiple studies with diverse trauma populations,
many patients are unwilling or unable to effectively visualize the
traumatic event. To address this problem, researchers have recently turned
to the use of Virtual Reality (VR) to deliver exposure therapy by immersing
patients in simulations of trauma-relevant environments that allow