Page 712 - Total War on PTSD_FINAL

presentation of all ambient and additive combat-relevant stimuli into the VR scenarios (e.g., helicopter flyovers, bridge attacks, exploding vehicles and IEDs) can be controlled in real time via a separate “Wizard of Oz” clinician’s interface, while the clinician is in full audio contact with the patient.
The clinician’s interface (see Figures 6 and 7a) is a key feature that provides a clinician with the capacity to customize the therapy experience to the individual needs of the patient. This interface allows a clinician to place the patient in VR scenario locations that resemble the setting in which the trauma-relevant events occurred and ambient light and sound conditions can be modified to match the patient’s description of their experience.
The clinician can then gradually introduce and control real time trigger stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile), via the clinician’s interface, to foster the anxiety modulation required to promote extinction learning and emotional processing in a customized fashion based on the patient’s past experience and treatment progress. This package of controllable multi-sensory stimulus options was included in the design of BRAVEMIND system to allow a clinician the flexibility to engage users across a wide range of unique and highly customizable levels of exposure intensity. As well, these same features have broadened its applicability as a research tool for studies that require systematic control of stimulus presentation within combat relevant environments. The system has been deployed to over 100 VA Medical Centers, university clinics, and Army, Navy and Air Force medical centers to treat PTSD patients and is available to clinicians who can document their training in trauma-focused approaches like PE. A direct link to a YouTube channel with videos that illustrate features of this system and of former
712 of 837