Does Hospital's 'Virtual Iraq' helps PTSD sufferers face their fears

Reports about Virtual Iraq have been out for a while but I have yet to see any data, any figures about how well this program is working. What is more troubling is that none of the veterans I've talked to have been involved with this program. If it worked, don't you think there would be many veterans pushing for this therapy to help other veterans?

Experts have said over and over again since Vietnam, veterans need to avoid war movies and even news reports about combat. How could this be a good thing? Does it really work? Has it worked short or long term? Are there follow up studies done? These are questions that need to be answered.

Hospital's 'Virtual Iraq' helps PTSD sufferers face their fears
By JOANNA RICHARDS
TIMES STAFF WRITER
FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2009

SYRACUSE — Upstate Medical University on Thursday unveiled a new treatment option for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Virtual Iraq" offers an interactive, multisensory experience — like an enhanced video game — allowing soldiers to confront and gradually conquer their fears in a safe, private and controlled environment.

"The young vets seem more likely to take to this kind of therapy," said Robbi T. Saletsky, director of the university's Cognitive Behavior Program for Depression and Anxiety Disorders. "There's less stigma attached to it; it seems cool."

Ms. Saletsky demonstrated a treatment session in her office for the press. Volunteer Cristy L. Samuel, an Iraq war veteran and pre-medical student at Syracuse University, simulated the role of a patient. She is not a victim of PTSD, but said she would recommend the treatment for veterans with the condition.
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Hospital Virtual Iraq helps PTSD sufferers face their fears

Virtual Iraq has only treated 50 PTSD veterans

FACING the DEMONS
By DAVID KOHN
The Baltimore Sun
Friday, July 11, 2008

WASHINGTON — To a soldier who has been in Iraq, the sights, sounds and smells are familiar: the pop of an AK-47, the flash of a bomb, the stench of cordite.

The location, however, is not.


Here, in a small, windowless room at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, researchers are using the latest video game technology — plus a smell machine and a vibration platform — to help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Known as "Virtual Iraq," the treatment could help many soldiers who don't find relief from medication or traditional psychotherapy.

"It really jogs their memory," says Col. Michael Roy, who runs the digital therapy program at Walter Reed.

"It puts them back there very powerfully and makes them realize a lot of things they had consciously or subconsciously repressed."

Proponents of the new treatment say that once these memories are available, patients can begin to talk with therapists, eventually rendering the phantoms less terrifying.

Nationwide, only about 50 soldiers have undergone the treatment in the past three years — leading some critics to say the treatment is still unproved.