Virtual reality, or VR, is an idea that has been around since the 1900’s with some traces of it showing up in the 1800’s. VR itself refers to a three-dimensional environment that can be interacted with in a number of ways, the most common being through VR headsets like the Oculus Rift. Such headsets are designed with lens in front of your eyes to enlarge an LED display, providing a wide range of viewing area and is usually combined with audio to provide an immersive experience. Although this idea has been around for multiple lifespans, it has only recently began to make any major impact on society. VR started catching people’s eye in gaming when the company Oculus released the Oculus DK1 for sale in March, 2013. Although VR has slowly become …show more content…
The way it is used for therapy is a form of exposure therapy called VRGET, which stands for virtual reality graded exposure therapy. The treatment focuses on putting the patient in an environment that is similar to or reminds them of a traumatic event they experienced during their service. To check the effectiveness of VR in PTSD therapy, a study took note of skin conductance, heart rate, and temperature before, during, and after treatment on multiple occasions during a patients therapy period to use as indicators. The findings of the study point towards VR therapy being helpful to the patient as his heart rate was lowest after exposure at the end of therapy, suggesting that the patient was better able to keep himself calm or was less affected by flashbacks after having them. The patients temperature was also closer to average at the end of therapy, encouraging the same idea that they were less affected by their stressors. Similar evidence was found with skin conductance (Woods 310-313). It is still unclear if VRGET should become the standard form of therapy for PTSD affected veterans or even if it is more or less effective than other standard therapy methods, or if it has similar results with other forms of PTSD. The only thing about VR in this area that is certain is that it does work to some extent and that it likely will become more effective over time as the technology …show more content…
As a reference, a stroke occurs when the blood flow to your brain becomes blocked or hindered in some way, long enough for cells in your brain to die from oxygen deprivation. Once these cells die, you lose access to the functions they provide causing stroke patients to have problems such as paralysis or speech issues. It is dependent on each case what symptoms develop if the stroke isn’t fatal. Current practices for helping stroke victims include forms of physical and speech therapy depending on the effects and severity of the stroke. In an article wrote by Yamato and others, VR use was compared to these forms of “conventional therapy” by itself as well as its effect when used alongside normal methods. The exact method of therapy wasn’t recorded for all experiments done making the information less reliable, but overall the use of VR seemed to have an impact in “upper arm functions” and “activities of daily living” when used in addition to the normal methods. This means that stroke patients who lost some mobility or functions in their arms, or had trouble with daily activities such as taking a bath or cooking have had more success when they underwent usual therapy methods in addition to using VR. Overall there isn’t much recent news or studies about the impact of VR in stroke
The way that this form of therapy can be used in order to treat those who are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder is typically done by VR (or Virtual reality) when they do this the patients are put into a simulation similar to the battle or war that they were taking place in (only done for those who were involved in war) by putting them into the similar situation as they were in when the traumatic experience occurred it allows for the patient to come to realization that the things that will happen in his or her new day to day environment back at home will not hurt him or her in any way near the emotional trauma that was felt when he or she was on duty in the military. By letting the patient realize that this is a true statement, it leads to an overall decrease in anxiety towards the subject, which shows a dramatic decrease in the symptoms of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder therefore allowing for the patient to overall live a better and healthier lifestyle, because as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is taken from someone’s life many different negative things are taken from that one’s life with it, such as
The following provides a brief overview and critique of the intervention video. The video provides a visual of a therapeutic session using cognitive processing therapy (CPT) with a veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic disorder (PTSD). There is significant evidence that distinguishes CPT as an effective intervention model for PTSD.
This is a Phase 2, two-armed, randomized controlled trial study of a CAM intervention (Healing Touch with Guided Imagery) compared to treatment as usual. It was conducted at the Marine Corps Base Camp in Camp Pendleton, California with 123 active duty military personnel, of which 21 participants dropped out. Participants were chosen by hanging flyers at the Deployment Health Clinics and the mental health department at Camp Pendleton. Health care providers at these locations also provided candidates that were potentially eligible that were currently experiencing at least one or more of the hallmark PTSD symptoms. These include re-experiencing of trauma (i.e. flashbacks, nightmares), exaggerated arousal (i.e. insomnia, irritability), emotional numbing, and/or avoidance of people, places, situations that remind them of the trauma. From there, potential candidates were screened via telephone by research staff and, if eligible, they made an appointment to sign consent and complete pretest questionnaires. Each participant was randomized using a computer-generated randomization table by a statistician and assigned their groups; either Healing Touch with Guided Imagery (HT+GI) or TAU (Jain et al., 2012).
Oculus VR is a company that is working to develop a virtual reality for video
By using virtual reality, VA researches can recreate a PTSD suffers traumatic memories and develop treatment based on actual experiences. Chris Crowe, PhD, a researcher and psychologist with the Atlanta VA Medical Center is enthusiastic about the process and states "We believe this has very exciting potential to treat people very quickly and in a way that makes them less vulnerable to relapse,"(VA outlines PTSD research, 2010) These types of research studies are providing veterans with a better quality of life and allotting the time researchers need for long term
In this paper the therapies related to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) will be studied in order to determine the applicability thereof for the treatment (and prevention) of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD will be summarised as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders edition 4 with revisions (DSM-IV-TR). The therapy models, their theory and techniques will be discussed. The therapies this paper has in scope are, CBT, Exposure therapy and it’s different related techniques, Stress Inoculation Training (SIT), and Eye Movement Desensitisation
In order to explore the efficacy of VRET we investigate its effect on reducing symptoms of PTSD and compare it to prolonged exposure. Prolonged exposure (PE) is considered a gold standard in PTSD treatment due to the significant evidence supporting its efficacy (Rothbaum, Hodges, Ready, Graap, Alarcon, 2001; Powers et al., 2010). So far there have been seven studies comparing the effects of VRET to PE in treating PTSD. The control group in these studies involvs traditional PE in which patients re-experience traumatic memories through imaginal and in-vivo exposure with the help of a therapist.
These customization tools allow therapists to easily tailor experiences specifically for a patient’s needs. Being able to tailor a virtual reality simulation for a patient is much easier than trying to modify a non-simulated type of exposure therapy to match a patient’s needs. For example, virtual reality therapy makes it easier for therapists to slowly add and change the simulated scene to ease the patient into the exposure therapy rather than suddenly throwing them into their triggers. The authors note, Many [witnesses of 9/11] were deemed to be at high-risk for developing PTSD. [A simulation was developed] for treating survivors that gradually, yet systematically exposes the client to a simulated attack on the WTC.
Opening: (Question Audience)- Who has heard of the Oculus Rift? Today we will be talking about the Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift is something called Virtual Reality, or VR for short.” In this video that I will show you, we will see how older people who didn’t even have Atari’s when they were our age, react to this stunning piece of technology.
Twenty percent of all American adults who experience traumatic events this year will go on to develop Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. It is estimated that 31 million United States citizens are suffering from the disorder at any given moment. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is one of the world’s most prominent psychological issues, despite the fact that several people are not even familiar with its name. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that may occur after experiencing traumatizing events or being involved in life-threatening situations. There are several warning signs that a victim of PTSD may omit that range from subtle to very intense, including—but not limited to—avoidance of certain people, objects, or places, negative thoughts and moodiness, and changes in emotional behavior. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent the onset of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder altogether. For example, one can try to detect the disorder early, and seek help immediately following a traumatizing event. However, if PTSD does happen to be diagnosed, it can be managed via various types of psychological therapy and rehabilitation as well as medically prescribed aliments to combat the potential issues that may arise. These treatments are beneficial to society as a whole when taking into consideration just how many of its members suffer from this disorder. Many people deal with PTSD, but the presence of this pandemic can be moderated through consciousness of causation,
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is defined as “a condition that generates waves of anxiety, anger, aggression, depression and suspicion; threatens a person’s sense of self; and interferes with daily life functioning” (Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle & Cheever, 2010, p. 99). As human beings, we are built with different type of emotions and feelings that can endanger us or benefit us. When faced with a traumatic life event, an individual will either overcome the event and become stronger from the experience or that event can hinder the person causing them to experience the signs and symptoms of PTSD. According to Carrion and Kletter (2012), (as cited in Gabbay, Oatis, Silva & Hirsch, 2004) “epidemiological studies indicate that
Symptoms can be manifested in emotional and psychological ways such as insomnia, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, or increased agitation. Exposure therapy, without the use of VR, has been used as a source of treatment for PTSD, allowing a patient to gain greater mental control and knowledge of the traumatic event [8]. Though VR-graded exposure therapy (VRET), is also aimed to help patients understand the context of the traumatic event, VRET promotes emotional engagement, inhibiting the ability to bypass triggers
For veterans, the environment is often designed to reflect an area where a patient experienced trauma, allowing them to interact with and to associate the area where the condition originated with better memories than ones causing the condition, ultimately ridding them of PTSD after a certain period of time. After further development in order to ensure safety and availability to all, virtual reality therapy should be used to cure veterans with
In fact, virtual reality therapy is mostly exposure therapy taken to the next level with elements of other traditional therapies mixed in. A brief explanation of how exposure therapy works is needed. Sometimes, exposure therapy can be used to provide closure to a soldier who feels tremendously guilty over the deaths of his or her comrades. Exposure therapy can help the soldier realize that he or she did everything he or she could, or at least prevent the soldier from making the same mistake in the future. Exposure therapy also works by reinforcing the patient in a positive way, much like certain supports reinforce a bridge’s strength. Patients make progress by confronting their traumatizing experience and are positively reinforced by a reduction in their PTSD symptoms. One concern about virtual reality technology is that the fake environment will have poor graphics that do not accurately portray the “real” world. However, just as photography has evolved over time-from black and white, to color, to moving pictures- so too will virtual environments become more sophisticated. In fact, fairly sophisticated virtual environments have been created that employ various stimuli that engage four out of the five senses, taste being the missing one, in order to fully immerse the patient in the virtual world and recall the
Virtual reality(VR) is a relatively new frontier in the technology industry. So new in fact, that, at its current stage, what it is and its potentials are unfamiliar to the general public. VR originally started gaining momentum as a new platform to game on, but its potential must be analyzed broadly in more than just one vocation. Because of the immersion VR provides, it has an immense capacity to benefit the educational field. Everyone is unique in the way they learn best; some people learn best by reading, some people learn audibly better, and, some people learn visually.