Virtual Vietnam: Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychological problem afflicting veterans of armed conflict.  Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is patterned after real-world exposure therapy techniques used to treat common phobias such as fear of heights.  By creating a virtual environment where the level of stimuli (such as helicopter flights and gunfire sound) can be carefully controlled by a trained therapist, VRET allows clinicians to apply exposure therapy techniques in a virtual setting.  This is useful when exposing patients to real world settings is too expensive, too dangerous, or too difficult to precisely control.

This project—a joint study between Georgia Tech, Emory University, and the VA Hospital in Atlanta—developed a VRET system to treat Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD.  The technology went on to be licensed by Virtual Better, a company now selling VRET systems for a broad range of use cases including PTSD and a range of phobias.

Publications

Larry F. Hodges, Barbara Olasov Rothbaum, Renato Alarcon, David Ready, Fran Shahar, Ken Graap, Jarrell Pair, Philip Hebert, David Gotz, Brian Wills, and David Baltzell. Virtual Vietnam: A Virtual Environment for the Treatment of Vietnam War Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Proceedings of The Eighth International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-Existence, Tokyo, Japan (1998).
[PDF, 2,135k]

Rothbaum, B.O., Hodges, L.F., Alarcon, R., Ready, D., Shahar, F., Graap, K., Pair, J., Hebert, P., Gotz, D., Wills, B. and Baltzell, D. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD Vietnam Veterans: A Case Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress (1999).
[PDF, 563k]

Larry F. Hodges, Barbara Olasov Rothbaum, Renato Alarcon, David Ready, Fran Shahar, Ken Graap, Jarrell Pair, Philip Hebert, David Gotz, Brian Wills, and David Baltzell. A Virtual Environment for the Treatment of Chronic Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. CyberPsychology & Behavior (Volume 2, Number 1, 1999).