The Virtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego has been awarded $4 million dollars by the Office of Naval Research to test the potential of virtual reality programs in treating traumatized soldiers.
The software used in the VR initiative, which began in April 2005, is based on military training computer-game ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’. Patients are taken on a virtual journey through Iraq which leads on to a battle ground, complete with simulated graphical and audio elements such as explosions and aircraft flying overhead. The simulation uses VR headsets to immerse the patient in ‘Iraq’, and also uses bass shakers that rumble the patient’s seat and a smell machine that creates authentic scents.
Hunter Hoffman, the leader of another ONR-funded project at the University of Washington, says that even with less-than-perfect graphics, PTSD patients respond well to the VR treatment.
A 2004 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that PTSD afflicts about 18% of the troops in Iraq.
