Page 648 - TWOPTSD

further inform the prevention, assessment and treatment of PTSD. As a treatment tool, BRAVEMIND was developed to address PTSD by offering a means by which the natural avoidance tendency could be overcome in trauma sufferers. The value for using VR for the treatment of PTSD is supported by previous reports in which patients with PTSD, who were unresponsive to previous imaginal PE therapy treatments, went on to respond successfully to Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET). As well, a number of clinical trials have also further supported its clinical efficacy (see recommended readings at the end of the chapter).
BRAVEMIND allows clinicians to gradually immerse patients into any of 14 virtual Iraq and Afghanistan environments representative of contexts where they experienced trauma in a controlled, stepwise fashion by providing the capability to control multi-sensory emotional stimuli and monitor the intensity of the patients’ stress responses via psychophysiological assessment techniques (see Figures 1-7).
For example, the Iraq and Afghan City settings have a variety of elements including a marketplace, desolate streets, checkpoints, ramshackle buildings, warehouses, mosques, shops and dirt lots strewn with junk. Access to building interiors and rooftops is available and the backdrop surrounding the navigable exposure zones creates the illusion of being embedded within a section of a sprawling densely populated mountainous or desert city. The user can also be positioned inside of a Humvee or MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle that supports the perception of travel within a convoy or as a lone vehicle with selectable positions as a driver, passenger or from the more exposed turret
648 of 1052