Page 649 - Total War on PTSD

could leverage the motivating nature of digital game technology, it might be possible to advance cognitive and physical rehabilitation following a brain injury. It would also be possible to systematically adjust the challenge level of the rehab activity in order to pace engagement with tasks presented at a level that was neither, too easy or too difficult for the patient and thus, keep them in what game developers call the “flow channel”. If one could design rehab games that were that motivating, yet still specifically targeted the cognitive or physical process that needed rehabilitation within a functionally relevant virtual reality context, we might be able to not only increase the amount of training required to effect positive change, but we might also be able to draw in digital generation patients into treatment who might not otherwise seek treatment. We later saw this happen with young digital generation service members (SMs) with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), who are at home with this technology, and are willing to participate in VR exposure therapy, after casting a blind eye to more traditional approaches that rely exclusively on talk therapy or effortful imaginal memory retrieval. It's not science fiction to them. It's engaging.
The use of VR technology offers unique capabilities for the treatment of a wide range of clinical conditions (Brain Injury, Stroke, PTSD, Autism, Phobias, Pain, ADHD, etc.). VR allows interactive, multi-sensory, immersive environments to be readily created that can be tailored to a patient’s needs. At the same time VR provides the ability for clinicians to control, document, and measure stimuli
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