Comparing virtual reality exposure therapy to present-centered therapy with 11 U.S. Vietnam veterans with PTSD.

Eleven Vietnam veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were randomly assigned to 10 sessions of either virtual reality exposure (VRE) therapy within a computer-generated virtual Vietnam environment or present-centered therapy (PCT) that avoided traumatic content and utilized a problem-solving approach. Participants were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6 months posttreatment by an independent assessor blind to treatment condition. Nine participants completed treatment with one dropout per condition.

A field test of group based exposure therapy with 102 veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

Group-based exposure therapy (GBET) was field-tested with 102 veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nine to 11 patients attended 3 hours of group therapy per day twice weekly for 16-18 weeks. Stress management and a minimum of 60 hours of exposure was included (3 hours of within-group war-trauma presentations per patient, 30 hours of listening to recordings of patient's own war-trauma presentations and 27 hours of hearing other patients' war-trauma presentations).

Long-term quality of life after total laryngectomy.

Background: There is a perception that a total laryngectomy has a devastating effect on patients and their families, but only a few studies have addressed long-term quality of life (QOL) after laryngectomy.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of 49 patients more than 2 years since laryngectomy was performed with a general health status instrument (Short Form-12, version 2 [SF-12 v2.]) and a disease-specific QOL instrument (University of Washington Quality of Life questionnaire, version 4 [UW-QOL v4.

A program encouraging early defibrillation results in improved in-hospital resuscitation efficacy.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine whether survival to discharge after in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest could be improved by a program encouraging early defibrillation that included switching from monophasic to biphasic devices.

Background: In-hospital resuscitation continues to have a low success rate. Biphasic waveform devices have demonstrated characteristics that might improve survival, and outside the hospital, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have shown promise in improving survival of patients suffering cardiopulmonary arrest.