Army Bloggers Roundtable: Virtual Treatments for PTSD

U.S. Army Bloggers Roundtable to discuss how virtual reality applications are being designed and implemented across various points in the military deployment cycle to prevent, identify and treat combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Dr. Albert "Skip" Rizzo will be discussing virtual approaches to dealing with PTSD. His latest project has focused on the translation of the graphic assets from the Xbox game, Full Spectrum Warrior, into an exposure therapy application for combat-related PTSD with Iraq War veterans. Rizzo is a pioneer in using immersive technologies to address issues of mental health and brain injury, including virtual reality treatments for post-traumatic stress and motor rehabilitation. At the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, he leads several projects that use virtual humans and virtual reality for mental health training and support. Dr. Rizzo will discuss these various projects and explain how virtual reality can be an effective supplement to more traditional treatment options in addition to ways in which virtual reality and virtual humans can provide a safe and easily accessible avenue for support for military members, their Families and civilian populations. Specific projects include exposure therapy for PTSD, stress resilience training, virtual patients for clinical training, virtual human health guides and game-based physical and cognitive rehabilitation.