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Therapists use Virtual Reality for Veterans
ahoehn writes "NPR is reporting that researchers from the University of Southern California along with the Office of Naval Research are simulating combat situations which cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for theraputic purposes. Their immersive virtual reality technique seems to consist of the game Full Spectrum Warrior, headphones, and a set of VR goggles. From the article: 'The object is to help veterans come to terms with what they've experienced in places like Iraq and Afghanistan by immersing vets in the sights and sounds of those theaters of battle.'
One can only assume that soon someone be reforming carjackers by letting them play the GTA."
it will work only if you pay them the street value of a stolen car for each one they get in the game...
while there playing gta they'll steal the goggles and run
I'd think that this technology would be more useful as a training tool, to help new soldiers learn what to expect in combat. Also, couldn't this be used as a physological filter, to identify those most likely to come down with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the first place?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
. . . for pervs in hawaian shirts?
Therapists use Virtual Reality for Veterans
Did anyone else read this "the rapists use virtual reality for veterans" ?
Because reforming someone and treating them for PTS is entirely in the same ball park.
Yeah, they all be reforming a shit.
NO NO NO NO NO.
One can only assume that soon someone be reforming carjackers by letting them play the GTA.
Obviously, this should've been "soon someone done be reforming". Pft.. these posters need to learn English.
Therapists using this for pedophiles?
im sure it will be tried at some point, somewhere... And claimed to be 'theraputic'.
over their, send the word, send the word, to beware...
GrammarForGeeks.org
Please contribute!!
I say we just set them down in front of Battlefield 2 with a really nice rig.
I have some reservations about the approach though. I fear we would trade one pain for another. Honestly, there is nothing worse then no cooperation on a 64 player pub server.
At least the latter scar is at least more common and thus a larger pool of support is available.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
One bit I worry is that we will be condemming our troops to Nintendo Wars, programming robot killers who return to home unbalanced. The GTA Defense may actually be real in 10 years.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
One can only assume that soon someone be reforming carjackers by letting them play the GTA.
Because, as everyone knows, a criminal hijacking cars results in the same trauma that soldier experiences when his humvee is blown up.
I can't believe someone could even equate the "thrill" of performing a criminal act with the trauma of war.
The psychologists are trying to help the soldiers understand why they act and react the way they do after a traumatic event. One Mash episode scratches the surface of this type of therapy. A doctor experiences something which seems ordinary in the daily life of a soldier, but he later tries to prevent another physician from administering gas anesthesia to a patient in need of surgery. During therapy the doctor comes to realize the the "ordinary" experience was actually a mother smothering her child to prevent the nearby enemy from finding the group's location.
A PTSD soldier desires a normal life.
-Adam
All your grammatical errors are belong to us
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Good job trying to patronize treatment that could help people whom selflessly risked their lives (even if you agree with it or not) to help protect your country and you. Your little GTA comment was completely unneccesary.
One can only assume that soon someone be reforming carjackers by letting them play the GTA.
This is a cheap shop that vividly reveals the author's ignorance.
In the first place, there is an enormous moral difference between carjacking and attempting to kill and capture, for example terrorists in Afganistan.
Moreover, PTSS is a *real* issue. People going to war see unpleasant things, and dealing with that may be difficult. The intention is not to get them to feel bad about what they did, but to adjust to life where getting shot at is not an issue.
Scuttlemonkey should be ashamed.
The day is mine, Trebeck!
There is truth in humor.
Day to Day, August 19, 2005 A new, high-tech system designed to treat military veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder -- or PTSD -- may be familiar to fans of a squad-based combat video game.
Using components from the popular game Full Spectrum Warrior, psychologist Skip Rizzo and his colleagues have fashioned a "virtual" world that simulates the sources of combat stress.
The project is a joint venture between the Institute for Creative Technologies -- a cutting-edge research lab at the University of Southern California -- and the Office of Naval Research. The object is to help veterans come to terms with what they've experienced in places like Iraq and Afghanistan by immersing vets in the sights and sounds of those theaters of battle.
The soldier being treated wears VR goggles and headphones. Using a tablet-based interface, a therapist can activate or remove the sounds of gunshots or the sight of smoke, depending on a patient's reaction. The idea is to re-introduce the patients to the experiences that triggered the trauma, gradually, until the memory no longer incapacitates them.
Eventually, Rizzo believes the therapy will include other stimuli, such as vibrations to simulate the impact of bombs or rumbling of tanks, and even the smells of war -- the body odor, garbage and spices of urban combat, for example.
Early results from trials suggest virtual reality therapy is uniquely suited to a generation raised on video games. The gaming aspect of the treatment also helps to lessen the stigma associated with getting therapy.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mdma
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
After having to create torn-apart bodies of women and children and sounds of others dying?
I thought video games CAUSED violent behavior?
...now I just don't know what to believe...
By the time you've rhymed one line, I've already busted ten; You rap in exponential time and I'm big-O of log(n).
They tried with alcohol... they failed.
They tried with drug therapy... they failed.
Now they are trying with Virtual Reality?!
It seems that they are out of ideas.
it simulated gulf war syndrome!
I'm a rabbit startled by the headlights of life
I'm a disabled veteran and have struggled to come to terms with what I've been through during two deployments. I expect an apology from you and Slashdot in general for posting such a demeaning thing about those who've tried to protect their countries.
Sounds like they're doing simple desensitization. They should introduce paradoxical reaction. Have an army of Hello, Kitty! attack them with yarn balls.
Sure we could use this on criminals. Just give them a little shock when they're naughty. And it'll be just like that Clockwork Orange business where this idea worked great.
Jaywalkers beware!
Seriously, are you an American? The founding fathers are spinning in their graves....
Get your Unix fortune now!
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Think about how much bigger the post traumatic stress load must be on the other side(s) of this war, that takes 10 - 100 times as high casualities, and presumably has very few therapy options available.
I don't know much about PST, but I can't think it will manifest itself in ways that are good for anyone.
Quit being so literal and unforgiving, it may just come back to bite you in the ass someday
Get your Unix fortune now!
It's the concept of desensitization.
You let the veteran relive his experiences in a non-hostile environment. Through repetition, it allows the individual to "delink" his experience from the autonomic alarm response that these things generate.
Vets with PTSD are often hyper-alert, and exhibit "scanning" type behavior. Simple, common experiences can trigger an immense autonomic fight-or-flight response, complete with panic, sweating, rapid heartrate, elevated blood pressure, flushing, etc...
This isn't about GTA or anything similar... it's real, actual, well-established therapy.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Why are they doing this? The soldiers knew what they were getting into when they signed up, they knew the risks. If they felt they couldn't handle the stresses of war then they shouldn't have signed up.
... such as replacing human therapists with computers.
... where to begin, so many horrors to choose from. So show some fucking respect for vets, okay?
The army needs all the soldiers it can get. Recruitment numbers are not good. Stop-loss orders are in effect. Perhaps AWOLs are up, I'm not sure.
In any case, the army has a basic interest in keeping soldiers in fighting trim. If videogame therapy helps return a soldier to the battlefield, that's a good thing for the army. Second best, returning a soldier to a non-combat support task. Failing that, finding a way to lower VA costs
Just a thought -- I'm not army myself, not really qualified.
I must say, too, that there are some profoundly insensitive posts in this thread. Don't talk to me about Wasting Taxpayer Money on vets. I don't happen to support the Iraq wars, but goddamit, soldiers keep getting fucked by their superiors, war after war. World War One: bonus marchers. World War Two, Korea: post-war bomb testing, irradiated vets, cancer, official denial. Vietnam
-kgj
-kgj
Just a couple things I would like to point out. First off PTSD is not always triggered by one traumatic event but also from the day to day stressors of having your life threatened. Some studies have actually stated this is the most frequent cause. Also I would imagine that these stressors have to do with actually believing your life is threatened and not from your body being tricked into thinking that. In other words making loud sounds and playing some video game isn't going to give you PTSD.
However the purpose behind this is for a theraputic effect. I'm not sure how this will work either. PTSD is like brain damage done by intense stress. This is something you basically live with for your entire life. It is not something learned or like a phobia. This is serious mental damage. I just don't see how playing a video game is going to help.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
So you're having nasty recollections of the war you fought in?
No Problem... just numb your brain and conscience by immersing yourself in a virtual war. You'll stop feeling so bad when you learn: War Is Good...War Is Good...
Just Another Vet
If games are being used to help people deal with violent sitation maybe this will take the air out of the whole violent games make kids do bad things argument. If playing them lets kids cope better with the violence out there in the world, then maybe we can try and find the real cause, like say the parents that are blaming everything on games.
just because you had a job where you can get killed doesn't make you special. lots of people get killed at their jobs, and lots of people risk their lives every day for others. the main difference is that most of them dont get medals or parades for it.
are NOT what the army needs, or wants. Proper therapy and post-combat counseling/guidance can prevent a soldier from becoming a psychological casualty; who becomes an inhabitant of the VA system and never quite recovers his normal life.
Patriotism aside, the army has a huge vested interest in keeping these guys sane and mentally healthy. Combat veterans maintain an institutional memory of the "lessons learned" from their battles and experiences. These are lessons that are learned at great cost in men and material, and can save lives in the future. Seasoned soldiers are far superior to green troops.
Those young NCOs and company-grade officers are the core of the armed forces, and will form the backbone of that force for the next 15-20 years. The military needs every one of those Iraq vets healthy and sane, particularly since they now possess expertise in urban combat, the most-costly and dangerous of military endeavors.
Those combat vets are a national resource, forged in the crucible of Iraq, and they need to be treated as such.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I don't know why, but for some reason vehicular kleptomania seems less plausible than regular kleptomania...
I really hope that Full Spectrum Warrior is a better theraputic tool than it is a video game.
-B
because I don't have my copy handy.
- m
Something none of the military brass like to talk about... PTSD, overwhelmingly, debilitates soldiers who have personally killed people. "Combat stress" -- from being shot at -- is incidental by comparison. The ones ordered to slaughter unarmed civilians, particularly women and children, get it worst. (Bomber pilots and artillery specialists do the most of that, but find it easiest to pretend; they don't usually see their victims fall.) Those who think honestly know draftees are really no different from civilians. Soldiers who "only" had their legs blown off get off easy, again by comparison.
My father used to call Viet Nam vets with PTSD crybabies. I asked him if he (as a Naval officer, earlier) had ever been obliged to kill anybody. He must have thought it over carefully, because I never heard him criticize a vet after that.
you guys have no idea what you are talking about
one of the best ways to defeat fear is to face it
and one of the best ways to face your fears is in VR
thats why they use VR to treat phobia
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the use of MDMA in PTSD (as currently being studied by Michael Mithoefer)...
If they did it right, they could pair less traumatic stimuli (for this case, let's say something like fluffy bunnies) with the memories that Full Spectrum Warrior evokes over a period of time. Er, yeah. If you know your Psychology, it does make sense: Classical Conditioning can both induce and remove fears, which is essentially what these psychologists would be working on.
I cant believe the comments made at the end of the intro? a juvinile gaming joke after a serious article that shows a breakthrough in treating a VERY serious mental illness... I live with PTSD, I did not get it from being in war, but through prolonged exposure to trama... I do not wish this on anyone, including that immature fuck that mad that GTO joke. Luckely there is an understanding about PTSD out there, and that it is being looked at as a very serious problem... I mean if you cant work, or funtion for life.. thats a serious problem... I wish all those that have PTSD or similar the best, keep on trucken, and my thoughts and prayers are with you in your time of need...
I can't believe someone could even equate the "thrill" of performing a criminal act with the trauma of war.
He wasn't equating "trauma" to "thrill", he was equating the potential "solution" to both, which is said to be "more immersion in the thing that ailes you will have you right as rain."
He made a decent point. Enough to make me wonder if I had suffered from a near-drowning, would playing a violent game in which I repeatedly sink and drown help me? (As opposed to a nice game where I'm swimming peacefully.)
...if there were virtual veterans.
War is, on the whole, stupid. The current US war is particularly so.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
If you already know the exact amount of trauma that you would suffer having to kill someone / having to see someone being killed / etc, then good for you.
There have been cases where trained fire fighters freeze up when they get inside of a burning building. There are tons of cases where police officers have to make multiple visits to the shrink after shooting someone / getting shot at. There are many many cases of people totally shutting down, to the point where the can't talk or stand for awhile, when they are in a war. In the heat of the moment average citizens do heroic things, then sometimes weeks later suddenly realize what they've done and end up with repeating nightmares.
Apparently you are smarter than all of those trained professionals, since you already know exactly how a horrible situation is giong to affect you.
When these subjects are receiving the Ludovico treatment, what is playing in the background?
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Actually the difference is that soldiers (unlike even police officers and firefighters) work for the federal government as instruments of American political will. A police officer works for the city of Phoenix, and a firefighter works for Westchester County, but a soldier puts his life on the line on behalf of every American.
When a police officer saves a life or kills a criminal and gets a medal, he is recognized for the effort he has made on behalf of his community. When a soldier receives such recognition, it is for acts on behalf of the entire nation.
Also, there is a critical difference in that soldiers are called up on to kill people. That's not something that might come up in their jobs, it is at the core of their jobs. They are asked to do the very thing that society teaches us all not to do. The recognition that veterans receive is largely because soldiers not only take risks, but they are made to kill.
They are the proxies for you and me and John Kerry and George Bush. Whether you support the war or not, the soldiers are still killing and dying because our representative government sent them to do that job on behalf of all of us.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Are there any real applications in this in helping geeks get over the traumatic experience of a week with no internet connection/computer? :P
As promised, they'll be treated to free immersive porn and one of these http://www.bustymousepads.com/images/gallery1_b.jp g
Most of us having been looking that he done gets fired sometime too.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Sights and sounds aren't enough, I don't think. The sense most strongly liked to memory is the sense of smell. I by no means have PTSD like a lot of these guys do (I never came under direct fire, just had to worry about mines and unexploded ordinance mostly), but the smell of diesel exhaust or bug repellant still make me feel distinctly twitchy. I used to also get nervous seeing war movies, but after a couple years I was able to watch 'em fine without feeling like flipping out. But even to this day, driving behind a school bus if I catch a whiff of that diesel, my stomach tightens up.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Then reality comes by and smacks them upside the head. Some come to, others suddenly find a new belief in war is wrong, this war is wrong et al, anything to deny their obligations that they took so lightly when they enlisted.
Back on subject, most soldiers end up having no problems, they adjust to what they have to do and need to do. The killing, the maiming, the friends dying or losing limbs. See a man holding his intestines in his hands, thoughtlessly trying to put them back in, or another cradling his just blown off leg.
Some disconnect from these. Others have a harder time disconnecting. I can see playing a violent game can help people disconnect. Help them overcome the guilt they often feel from surviving where others died horrible deaths.
Similar research was already conducted in 1999 by Larry Hodges.
Here's an overview. And for a relaxed Sunday afternoon read: check out the related research paper (PDF).
I saw Larry and fellow Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy researchers at a talk in 2000. Larry showed a video of a Vietnam Vet suffering from PTSD who was exposed to a virtual Vietnam war scenario. Within a short time the Vet totally forgot that he was in a simulation and started to yell out to his virtual comrades, trying to warn them of an imminent attack. Watching this video was both fascinating and appalling at the same time. On the one hand I was proud to see how far VR research has come. On the other hand I realized how horrible the Nam war experience must really have been for the Vet.
1. our government is representative of money, not of me or of most ordinary slobs in the country. 2. lots of police are federal employees. ever heard of park rangers? the FBI? border patrol? 3. police have to kill sometimes too. its part of their training. but they do it in a legal system, where they have to pay if they kill innocent people. 4. if u are a proper right wing nutjob, then doctors who do abortions are also 'trained to kill' on behalf of 'society' and representative government. im still trying to figure out why soldiers are 'different'.
Sorry, that just isn't going to happen.
The US has experienced a level of relative saftey and prosperity for so long the population doesn't understand there is any other way.
You might have fought to keep them safe, but most people never felt in any real danger, so they don't care.
You've seen the real world, now welcome back to the surreal life, where having to spend $2 in gas to get to Starbucks is a national crisis.
Or any sort of combat situation. The closest I've come is when an arsehole tried to mug me - broke my nose but didn't get anything so I wasn't even a little bit stressed by it.
Now, don't automatically dismiss my next thoughts because of that though. I'd like to try and say a few things and hopefully get my point across clearly.
Firstly, War is Hell. There is no doubt about that. To take a man - and I say that as a general sexless term - and put them in a situation where they could, at any moment, suddenly be dead, can not be good for their nerves in the first place.
Imagine being on a camping trip with your buddies. You've had a few beers, caught a couple of fish, and are generally relaxing around the camp fire while waving off the odd mosquito and keeping warm in your goretex (or whatever) jacket.
"The mosquitos seem a bit heavy tonight." says one of your friends as you hear a particularly loud whining noise, and then his face is half-gone and he's dead.
There's no thoughts that come of something like that. It's just "flight or fight" time. You can run, or you can kiss the dirt and crawl into your tent.
Your goretex jacket is suddenly army greens. The mosquitos crack through the air. People are shouting directions, orders, for medical help, and just generally screaming in pain. Your fishing pole has become a large calibre, semi-automatic weapon, hard to tell if it's loaded or even what the exact calibre is in the bad light from the fire and with dirt on your hands. The tent is a fox hole or low trench with a shitty green tarp overhead.
It's hard to think, to see clearly. You're scared - scared of dying, scared of living in pain, scared of ending up alone, scared of getting captured. There's the smell of mud, burning wood, maybe blood. At any moment a grenade might drop in and remove a limb if it doesn't kill you right away.
And this, why you're out here, is because some guy in another country had decided that his piece of land wasn't big enough, or because he had to show "johnny foreigner" who's the boss.
You're probably not even in your own country, defending it against invaders.
"What the fuck am I doing here? What's going on up top? Why did I ever join? Will I ever see my wife again? Was that Hank that just screamed? Oh God I don't want to be here!"
I don't know if this is a quote or a paraphrase from someone else but someone'll probably say it one day - "Those who would make war, would not if they had to fight it."
I don't agree with war in general. I think it lost most of it's honour and principles of necessity when kings stopped going into battle with their soldiers. At the same time though I do feel sympathy for those who've been through war. I can only imagine in a small and pathetic way, like above, what it's like to be in the middle of a battle.
If this new approach, using VR to confront and wear away the affects of Shell Shock, can work, I hope it get used and helps all those that fought in wars and came out broken. I hope they can rebuild their minds and put them to use in a new, and productive endeavour, remembering without terror what they once went through so they can hopefully dissuade the next generation from joining up the "defense" forces.
There shouldn't be war any more. Our final act in the military should be to disband it as a fighting unit, gather up all the veterans with shell shock, and try to heal them.
International commerce and the almighty dollar is the new weapon in our information age. Maybe when this time is over and we're scrabbling for the bits after a societal collapse we'll need to fight again, but now, there is no need for it.
If a man is terrorising a society, take out that man. If a dictator is harming his people and they've cried out for help, take out that dictator. We have the technology today, when used correctly, to end wars before they even start.
Idealistic and naive, maybe, but I'd like to at least dream that we won't all end up one day completely fucked because of some scared little egomaniac sitting in an irregularly shaped office barking orders into a phone. Maybe if they had to fight, we wouldn't.
His name is Robert Paulsen...
...who is about to rush out and buy this game that's supposed to be so intense as to trigger PTSD?
And here's a bizarre comparison; I was home in Brooklyn on 9-11, with a view of the towers out my bedroom window. I was into flight sim at the time and I flew jumbo jets around Manhattan just to see the towers still standing. Somehow, it made me feel a little better at a time when I (like most NYers) was more or less bonkers with PTSD.
"Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot of scum on top. " - Edward Abbey
So tell, me, doc, they put these folks in a kill-or-be-killed situation, with guerillas hiding in the midst of a large number of civilians, and they fired madly, and killed women and children. They're human beings.
And, of course, Bush won't even meet with one guy's mother, and Nixon got pardoned - the folks who put them there.
How do you "make it okay" for them to live with literal unjustified manslaughter and murder, and to think of their dead every day of their lives? Brainwash 'em, make 'em think it's all a dream? Kill their feellings, so that they'll never have a decent human relationship? Toss 'em out, and let them join the homeless?
Video goddamned games. That's what the administration thinks of human life, and you, Mr. Pshrink, want to "make it ok".
At least Dr. Spock spoke out against 'Nam, after his book helped raise so many kids.
mark, antiwar then, and antiwar now
no one did relate that story to the corto/armitage character from Neuromancer ?
what a disapointment...
The killing, the maiming, the friends dying or losing limbs. See a man holding his intestines in his hands, thoughtlessly trying to put them back in, or another cradling his just blown off leg..
Cause when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your
best friend's face, you'll know what to do. Forget it, Marge, it's Chinatown.
Heh. Ludwig Van, of course.
But seriously, assuming it's therapy (and voluntary), I think this is a really exciting development - akin to using the holodeck for therapeutic purposes in Star Trek (I forget which episodes).
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself