http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/18/0...7.q9rma10q.html
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Traumatized US soldiers being treated in 'virtual Iraq'
Feb 18 7:52 PM US/Eastern

Traumatized US soldiers are being treated for post-war psychological disorders by going out on patrol in a computer-generated "virtual Iraq," experts told a conference.

Skip Rizzo, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, has helped create a program that simulates life in the war zone for Iraq veterans suffering from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The ground-breaking treatment allows soldiers to experience the sights, sounds and even the smells of a war-zone, courtesy of wrap-around goggles linked to a startlingly realistic virtual world.

The idea is to re-introduce veterans to the experiences that have inflicted mental scars until gradually they are no longer haunted by the memories, a long-established therapeutic technique known as "exposure therapy."

"What we do is put somebody in a virtual Iraq but at a level where initially there will be minimal anxiety," Rizzo said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

"Say for example their trauma event was being blown up in a Humvee -- we might start them off just standing in the desert next to a Humvee.

"Gradually we would put them in the Humvee and have them start driving down a desert road. Eventually over the course of the therapy you introduce elements that increase the realism -- bombs going off, things blowing up.

"It's a gradual exposure to a realistic environment which you can't really do just through imagination."

Soldiers undergoing the treatment can be placed in a variety of situations -- either as the passenger, driver or gunner in an armored vehicle or as a soldier on a foot patrol walking through an Iraqi city.

"You could be walking down one street and a child will come up to greet you, you could be walking down another street and a car explodes," Rizzo said.

The virtual Iraq experience is designed to be completely immersive.

Fake aromas -- including gunpowder, burning smoke, diesel fuel, body odors, exotic spices and roast mutton -- are wafted under the patient's nose.

The boom of bombs is simulated by giant speakers placed under the patient's chair. "If you've ever stopped at a set of traffic lights and a kid has pulled up next to you playing rap music and you can feel your car shaking -- it's the same principle," Rizzo said.

The realism of the graphics has impressed patients, Rizzo said. "We've have had people ask us in certain situations 'Is that real or is that video?'," Rizzo said.

So far the 'Virtual Iraq' has been used in clinical trials at 10 locations across the United States, although only four soldiers have completed a course of the treatment.

One of the first successful patients was a 21-year-old female treated for PTSD. "She was a support staff person that had frequent exposure to suicide bombing sites and areas where there was significant human carnage," Rizzo said.

"I'm very conscious about making any grand claims about this treatment yet because there is such a small group of patients. But the early results have been encouraging," Rizzo said.

I've heard about this...
I'd kick someone's ass who wanted to put a brother
through some virtual bad trip, deja vu, of his combat experience.

Bring his wife or girlfriend in, give him a week in Hawaii,
at the 196th Lt. Inf. Brig, HQ...that would be better. Surf's up bro,
smoke some Hawaiian if ya got 'em...if not, we'll get ya some.
That's this E-3's RX.

The Marines have been doing this since 2003 Chuck. It's some shrinks idea to put them under high stress and gentling bring them out of it with plenty of therapy and talking it out. What I've heard is sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.

I think it beats the hell out of what they'd do to some of the fellows screwed up coming back from Vietnam. Shuffled off to the Navy hospital and locked down on a pysche ward.

I have some concerns about this. I think it retraumatizes the brain by increasing stress hormones once again. But they're the experts on PTSD at the VA centers.

There is a similar argument that goes back and forth re: PTSD for civilian responders in high-stress incidents... police, fire, mulit-trauma, cops shooting, that sort of thing... that "talk therapy"... to re-visit the event mentally and motionally... is helpful and therapeutic.

I'm no expert in any of this... but it seems to me that re-visiting the event, in any intentional or repetitive way, only makes the triggers and the associated events and reactions become hard-wired. If there is an opening at the end of that tunnel, it seems to me to be a long tunnel that many a PTSD patient might find it difficult to slog through.

It appears to this PTSD Vet that what they are after is the opportunity to return these affected vets to war. It doesn’t make sense otherwise, reliving a traumatic event over and over is not a method for recovery, it’s a method of creating a new reality, one that is more comfortable in a combat situation. If I had to relive my stressors over and over it would cause me to go completely insane. My treatment includes methods of eliminating the return of the stressors at unwelcome times.

Well, it's not just the VA centers doing it, like I said the Navy Docs trying to work this through for Marines coming out of combat do this too.

Hey Vaughn, if you're still having trouble with your PTSD and not responding to your current therapy try this link for a few alternatives.