Page 640 - Total War on PTSD

disorder exposure therapy, analgesic distraction for patients undergoing acutely painful medical procedures, and in the cognitive assessment of users to measure performance under a range of systematically delivered challenges and distractions.
VR Exposure Therapy for PTSD
Think about the worst thing that ever happened to you and remember how you felt immediately afterwards. Now imagine that six months or a year later, you still felt that exact same way with the exact same intensity. That is PTSD and it has a significant impact on the mental health of Service Members (SMs) returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. This should be no surprise since war is perhaps the most challenging situation that a human being can experience. The physical, emotional, cognitive and psychological demands of a combat environment place enormous stress on even the best-prepared military personnel. Today’s SMs encounter many stressors in a complex, unpredictable and fluid operational environment. Thus, exposure to stressful events characteristic of the recent combat theaters have placed significant numbers of SMs and Veterans at risk for developing PTSD and other mental health conditions. For example, as of June 2015, the Defense Medical Surveillance System reported that 138,197 active duty SMs have been diagnosed with PTSD. In a meta-analysis across studies since 2001, 13% of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) operational infantry units met criteria for PTSD, and its incidence rises dramatically (25-30%) in units with the highest levels of direct combat. Moreover, since 2006, mental
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