Joint Base Andrews, MD –
Malcolm Grow Medical Center trained a handful of mental health specialists on the use of the latest Virtual Reality technology. This technology, designed to replicate warzones in Iraq and Afghanistan is no game. It's designed to treat wounded warriors returning from the frontline to overcome the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 1st. Lieutenant LaToya Artis jumped at the chance to participate in the January training sessions. As a licensed social worker, she often comes across cases of PTSD which require the type of re-immersion in the very environment which caused the disorder. The therapy is thought to help inoculate the mind from associating every day events with those which shock the senses in battle.
Lieutenant Artis is now one of the few trained clinicians in the entire National Capital Region who can provide Virtual Reality Exposure (VRE) treatment for service members with combat related PTSD not in a clinical research study. "When I heard about this option, I jumped on board," said Lieutenant Artis. "It's just really good stuff and one more tool we can use to help servicemen."
PTSD symptoms are learned reactions to life threatening situations that servicemen carry over into their everyday lives. "In battle, PTSD is a survival technique," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Timothy Lacy, Chief of Tele-Health for the Air Force Medical Service. "However, those reactions aren't of much use when you're driving on the beltway" or in everyday situations. The treatment teaches service members to overcome the fear, hyper-awareness and jumpy state learned while in battle but which is no longer necessary upon return home.
MGMC is one of eight treatment facilities in the country to offer VRE to service members with PTSD. Virtual reality is used to further enhance exposure based treatments, which already have the strongest research support. Exposure techniques involve working through traumatic events with trained mental health providers in a therapeutic manner. Treatment usually lasts eight to 12 weeks.
Personnel with PTSD avoid anything that reminds them of the incident. Avoidance has been identified as one of the mechanisms which maintains or interferes with the natural recovery of combat related stress symptoms. Exposure treatments slowly get service members used to confronting traumatic events in a controlled manner and teach them overcome the hyper-awareness that can result from combat experiences. The Virtual Reality aspect of treatment is a relatively new innovation, allowing for more realistic exposure to traumatic events such as patrolling a neighborhood in Iraq or convoying in a Humvee in Afghanistan.
"This is basically an extension of an established treatment," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Anderson Rowan, Director of the psychology residency program at Malcolm Grow Medical Center. "We get the chance to replicate troops in contact situations more accurately, down to the smell, so that Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors can learn physically and mentally to not respond with fear and arousal to reminders of the combat experience." Exposing service members to the things that usually trigger intense fear and fight-or-flight reactions in a controlled environments helps their brains to distinguish between what is dangerous and what is simply a reaction learned in combat.
The first patient at Malcolm Grow was exposed to VRE in early June. Colonel Rowan expects the VRE treatment to be as successful as it has been throughout the armed services. In addition, VRE treatment has shown to be an effective treatment for phobias and PTSD victims of other disasters.
VRE was developed for the Air Force by Virtually Better. The equipment consists of noise cancelling headphones which replicate sounds associated with the combat environment such as calls to prayer, gunshots, explosions and the air support of an A-10 aircraft. A motion detecting head mounted display creates a realistic visual perspective, while bass speakers underneath a raised platform simulate the rumbling of the Humvee and explosions. All of the effort has gone into reproducing lifelike scenarios to enhance the effectiveness of exposure treatments.
The Air Force will be training five more mental health providers at Malcolm Grow this treatment in the near future. Next year, VRE treatment for PTSD will become an elective. Psychology residents under Colonel Rowan's tutelage can study the advanced therapy at Malcolm Grow. The course will give residents one more weapon in the fight to maintain the mental health of the most battle tested service members.
"This really puts us in a new class," said Colonel Rowan. "This treatment is available at MGMC to service members in the National Capital Region." The Air force is currently working with all three branches to treat PTSD patients with this new technology. Malcolm Grow Medical Center was chosen for its proximity to mental health facilities which service all branches.
"One thing to remember is that this is not a game," said Colonel Lacy. The technology may resemble the first-person-shooter video games that many young servicemen are familiar with, but it is a very serious technique used to treat a very serious and rapidly spreading problem. "One thing we want to do is get service members in here early, sitting down with our doctors and working through their problems," said Colonel Lacy. "The important thing is their health and if this technology can help with that, then it works."