 "Photo: Photo courtesy of Jarrell Pair")
Researchers at the USC have developed a virtual-reality system to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in returning Iraq war veterans.
The new software is designed to treat soldiers exhibiting symptoms of PTSD-like flashbacks and depression by gradually exposing them to virtual traumatic events in a supportive clinical environment. The virtual reality PTSD assessment and treatment system was created by adapting USC-developed software to teach soldiers leadership and tactical skills.
The system uses newly developed high-end graphics in combination with pre-existing artwork from the Xbox video game "Full Spectrum Warrior," which was developed by USC researchers working in collaboration with the Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, to ensure content accuracy.
Early prototypes of the virtual reality PTSD assessment and treatment system are already in place at Camp Pendleton and the San Diego Naval Hospital. Later versions of the application are also being tested by actual soldiers in Iraq, to solicit feedback on its features via a partnership with the Fort Lewis Army psychologists.
The project is headed by research scientist Albert "Skip" Rizzo and Jarrell Pair, of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), and funded by the Office of Naval Research.
This is not the first time virtual reality has been used to treat stress-related disorders. Pair was fundamental in developing a similar project at Georgia Tech seven years ago that aimed to help Vietnam War veterans combat post-traumatic stress using virtual reality.
The Virtual Vietnam PTSD application was designed and tested in 1997 through a partnership between Georgia Tech and Atlanta-based research and development firm Virtually Better. The results were encouraging, according to Pair.
"That study clinically validated the idea of using virtual reality to treat post-traumatic stress disorder," said Pair. "It took it from being a new, unproven idea from one that people in the psychotherapy field could use and get real results. It was clinically validated - it had been used in a hospital setting with real patients."
The most recent project is part of a three-year clinical trial that partners Virtually Better with USC in an effort to collect feedback on the virtual reality PTSD treatment system from soldiers, scientists and doctors, and apply that feedback to the refinement of the software.
USC researchers began work on the latest virtual reality treatment system over 18 months ago, when the first reports of Iraq war veterans with PTSD were surfacing. A new demand for treatment tools spurred Pair and Rizzo to rework their existing software to cater to these individuals' specific needs. The application is still in the process of being refined to better meet the needs of soldiers who have already used it.
"We expect to be doing formal therapy with this system in the very near future, and we're moving toward that objective. I don't think we'll ever completely finalize development - we're just getting so much feedback and so many requests," Pair said.
PTSD, a psychological condition resulting from a stressful experience such as combat, frequently causes the veterans it affects to suffer nightmares, flashbacks and extreme distress when exposed to "triggers," which remind them of the initial traumas.
The disorder is traditionally treated with a combination of psychotherapy and antidepressant or antipsychotic medication.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy, a treatment in which the patient is gradually exposed to stress-inducing stimuli and taught to work through his or her emotions, has been one of the most effective methods to date in treating PTSD and other common anxiety disorders such as phobias.
Unlike other anxiety disorders, however, war veterans with PTSD may experience more severe responses to their traumas since they stem from events that are typically outside the sphere of normal human experience - witnessing a bomb detonation or a person being shot.
The goal of the virtual reality PTSD treatment system is to expose soldiers to the stimuli necessary for effective therapy without traumatizing them all over again.
The software aims to enable patients to work through the events that caused their anxiety responses in the safety of a clinical setting, under the guidance of a trained therapist.
"Our aim here is not to re-traumatize people, but rather to re-expose them to relevant traumatic events in a graduated way that they can handle," said Rizzo, who is also a research assistant professor in the USC Davis School of Gerontology, in a statement released by USC.
The software system allows the clinician to guide the patient's experience in the virtual world by controlling the look of the environment, the scenario, sounds and weather.
In a statement released by USC, Rizzo said he hopes that every U.S. serviceman will one day be screened for PTSD using this new multimillion-dollar tool.
ICT initially partnered with the U.S. Army in 1999 to create virtual-reality tools that would train troops in leadership and decision-making skills. The Army opted to continue the partnership by five years in November 2004, when it awarded ICT a $100 million contract - the largest research contract ever received by USC.
