Predicting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Response Using Heart Rate Variability to Virtual Reality Environment and Modified Stroop Task: An Exploratory Study.

Predicting treatment response can inform treatment decisions, expectations, and optimize use of mental health treatment resources. This study examined heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and a modified Stroop task (mStroop) to predict post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment response. We report on an observational, longitudinal study with 45 U.

Combat-Related Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Report of Virtual Reality Graded Exposure Therapy With Physiological Monitoring in a U.S. Navy Officer and a U.S. Army Officer.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) seek to enhance the efficacy of treatments for warriors with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) secondary to their combat deployments to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

Virtual Reality Air Travel Training Using Apple iPhone X and Google Cardboard: A Feasibility Report with Autistic Adolescents and Adults.

Unlabelled: Rapid rises in autism diagnoses are increasing the demand for effective services and straining service providers. When individuals on the autism spectrum turn 18, they are faced with even greater barriers to services, since many services are delivered in school settings. Thus, there is a need for more accessible tools that teach daily life and communication skills to autistic adolescents and young adults.

Virtual Reality Air Travel Training with Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Preliminary Report.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is categorized by deficits in social communication and interaction, alongside repetitive, restrictive behaviors or interests (RRBIs). Previous research supports the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) to train a variety of specific skills (i.e.

Augmented Reality: Poised for Impact.

Though augmented reality (AR) has existed for decades, the technology's full impact is just beginning to become apparent. Since its inception, AR has shown significant promise for use in a wide variety of fields, including education, entertainment, art, and the sciences. This special issue focuses specifically on the impact of this unique technology on healthcare, particularly the areas of clinical training, patient education and treatment, and its use as a robust assessment tool.

Physiological Monitoring During Augmented Reality Exercise Confirms Advantages to Health and Well-Being.

Augmented reality (AR) is a versatile tool that is changing the way we interact with the world. One way is through exergaming, integrating AR, and gaming with traditional exercise programs. This study aimed to test three different AR systems to determine their ability to elicit physiological responses similar to those experienced while exercising or performing rehabilitation exercises.

Intermittent Exotropia Treatment with Dichoptic Visual Training Using a Unique Virtual Reality Platform.

We evaluated the effect of dichoptic visual training based on a unique virtual reality (VR) platform mounted display in patients with intermittent exotropia (IXT). A total of 25 IXT patients (8 men, 17 women) with a mean age of 12.3 years (range, 5-39 year) were recruited.

Pain Distraction During Ambulatory Surgery: Virtual Reality and Mobile Devices.

Virtual reality (VR) pain distraction has been applied across medical, surgical, and behavioral healthcare domains, marking a shift in pain attenuation practices. However, there is little research that has been performed to compare the efficacy of traditional head-mounted displays (HMDs) versus portable VR devices. The present study evaluated 44 outpatients in need of lipoma resection.

Heart Rate Variability and Cognitive Bias Feedback Interventions to Prevent Post-deployment PTSD: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction: There is a long history of pre-deployment PTSD prevention efforts in the military and effective pre-deployment strategies to prevent post-deployment PTSD are still needed.

Materials And Methods: This randomized controlled trial included three arms: heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB), cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I), and control. The hypothesis was that pre-deployment resilience training would result in lower post-deployment PTSD symptoms compared with control.

Heart rate variability: Pre-deployment predictor of post-deployment PTSD symptoms.

Heart rate variability is a physiological measure associated with autonomic nervous system activity. This study hypothesized that lower pre-deployment HRV would be associated with higher post-deployment post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Three-hundred-forty-three Army National Guard soldiers enrolled in the Warriors Achieving Resilience (WAR) study were analyzed.

Physician Burnout: Improving Treatment Efficacy with Virtual Reality.

Creating a significant negative impact on both their quality of life and the quality of patient care with an evident economical burden for the healthcare system, there is a growing concern over physician burnout. The range of interventions and treatments that have been used to address this problem, however, appear quite fragmented and lack compelling efficacy. We describe the main factors known to contribute to the development of physician burnout as well as currently available treatments.

Future directions: advances and implications of virtual environments designed for pain management.

Pain symptoms have been addressed with a variety of therapeutic measures in the past, but as we look to the future, we begin encountering new options for patient care and individual health and well-being. Recent studies indicate that computer-generated graphic environments--virtual reality (VR)--can offer effective cognitive distractions for individuals suffering from pain arising from a variety of physical and psychological illnesses. Studies also indicate the effectiveness of VR for both chronic and acute pain conditions.

Mobile devices as adjunctive pain management tools.

Approximately 108 million people in North America and Europe suffer from chronic pain. Virtual reality (VR) is a promising method for pain management in a clinical setting due to the distracting properties of an immersive virtual environment. In this study, we demonstrated the potential use of mobile phones as a means of delivering an easily accessible, immersive experience.

Virtual reality for pain management in cardiac surgery.

Surgical anxiety creates psychological and physiological stress, causes complications in surgical procedures, and prolongs recovery. Relaxation of patients in postoperative intensive care units can moderate patient vital signs and reduce discomfort. This experiment explores the use of virtual reality (VR) cybertherapy to reduce postoperative distress in patients that have recently undergone cardiac surgery.

Clinical use of virtual reality distraction system to reduce anxiety and pain in dental procedures.

Virtual reality (VR) has been used by clinicians to manage pain in clinical populations. This study examines the use of VR as a form of distraction for dental patients using both subjective and objective measures to determine how a VR system affects patients' reported anxiety level, pain level, and physiological factors. As predicted, results of self-evaluation questionnaires showed that patients experienced less anxiety and pain after undergoing VR treatment.

Virtual reality as a distraction technique in chronic pain patients.

We explored the use of virtual reality distraction techniques for use as adjunctive therapy to treat chronic pain. Virtual environments were specifically created to provide pleasant and engaging experiences where patients navigated on their own through rich and varied simulated worlds. Real-time physiological monitoring was used as a guide to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of this intervention.

Virtual reality graded exposure therapy with arousal control for the treatment of combat related posttraumatic stress disorder: a follow up case series.

Important challenges confronting DOD/military medical care are that of maintaining or increasing quality of care and increasing the effectiveness of treatments for warriors diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) secondary to their combat deployments to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Virtual Reality Graded Exposure Therapy with Arousal Control (VR-GET) has demonstrated a positive treatment effectiveness resulting in significant reductions of PTSD symptom severity. This positive treatment effectiveness has been maintained for up to 22 weeks after VR-GET therapy was completed.

Quantifying the effectiveness of virtual reality pain management: a pilot study.

Sensory pathways, consisting of chains of neurons, which spread from the receptor organ to the cerebral cortex, are responsible for the perception of sensations (including pain). In this study, we set out to determine how effective virtual reality (VR) could be in distracting patients from pain experienced through thermoreceptors on the skin. Six healthy subjects were exposed to uncomfortable pain stimuli with and without VR distraction.

VR Mobile Solutions For Chronic Stress Reduction in Young Adults.

Chronic stress in young adults has become a growing problem within recent decades and many are unable to find cost-effective and accessible treatment for psychological stress in their daily lives. We analyze the market of using a mobile application, Positive Technology, as a solution. Eleven participants, aged between 18 and 24, participated in the exercise.

Effect of virtual reality PTSD treatment on mood and neurocognitive outcomes.

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging tool to help treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previously published studies have shown that VR graded exposure therapy (VR-GET) treatment can result in improvements in PTSD symptoms. Less is known about the impact on depression, general anxiety, and neuropsychological functioning in patients with PTSD.

Clinical experiment to assess effectiveness of virtual reality teen smoking cessation program.

Smoking has increasingly become a burden on America's health and economic status. The fact that four out of every five adult smokers begins tobacco use before the age of eighteen indicates a need for teenage smoking cessation programs. The Virtual Reality Medical Center created an internet-based program that addresses the issue by utilizing cue exposure therapy in home and school environments to teach teens which cues trigger nicotine cravings and how to combat those cravings.

Methodology case study of the application of haptics to combat medic training programs.

Of the available training methods for emergency responders, including other methods based on computer technology, virtual reality video game training with haptics (tactile) features will be shown to provide the most effective transfer of skills to real-world emergency situations, providing a model for the development of new training products for combat medics and civilian first responders. This paper aims to provide a methodological case study of haptics use in medical training programs and highlight achievements in terms of performance. Review of these cases show that the addition of haptics to an existing simulation-based training program increases user performance in terms of completion time, error rates, and learning rate.

Emotionally based strategic communications and societal stress-related disorders.

This article discusses the potential of emotionally based strategic communications (EBSCs) as an extension of traditional strategic communications in prevention of societal stress-related disorders. The concept of EBSCs takes into consideration dominant emotional maps of a specific sociocultural environment in which communications take place. EBSCs may have a significant potential to transform mainly negative-dominant emotional maps of targeted social groups into more positive ones, as a precondition of building a more resilient and stress-resistant social environment.