1 Directorate for Mental Health, Naval Medical Center San Diego , San Diego, California.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014 Jul;17(7):439-46. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2013.0383. Epub 2014 Mar 17.
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. This study examined changes in self-reports of PTSD, depression, and anxiety before and after treatment, and also examined neuropsychological functioning as assessed by a computerized test of simple reaction time, procedural reaction time, and performance on the congruent, incongruent, emotional, and neutral (match the color of the "nonsense word") Stroop tests. Results showed that subjects treated with VR-GET showed significant reductions in PTSD and anxiety severity and significant improvements on the emotional Stroop test. Changes in depression and other measures of neuropsychological function were not significant. Change scores on the emotional Stroop test did not correlate with changes in self-report measures of PTSD. Overall, these findings support the use of VR-GET as a treatment for PTSD but indicate that benefits may be narrowly focused. Additional treatments may be needed after or alongside VR-GET for service members with neuropsychological impairments.
虚拟现实（VR）是一种新兴的工具，可用于帮助治疗创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。以前发表的研究表明，VR 分级暴露疗法（VR-GET）治疗可导致 PTSD 症状的改善。关于 PTSD 患者的抑郁、一般焦虑和神经心理功能的影响知之甚少。本研究在治疗前后检查了 PTSD、抑郁和焦虑的自我报告变化，还通过计算机测试简单反应时间、程序反应时间以及在一致、不一致、情绪和中性（与“无意义词”的颜色匹配）Stroop 测试中的表现评估了神经心理功能。结果表明，接受 VR-GET 治疗的受试者 PTSD 和焦虑严重程度显著降低，情绪 Stroop 测试显著改善。抑郁和其他神经心理功能测量的变化不显著。情绪 Stroop 测试的变化分数与 PTSD 自我报告测量的变化无关。总体而言，这些发现支持将 VR-GET 用作 PTSD 的治疗方法，但表明益处可能针对性很强。对于有神经心理障碍的军人，可能需要在 VR-GET 之后或与之同时进行其他治疗。
