Virtual Reality Therapy for the Treatment of Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Report 10 Years Post Combat Deployment

Important challenges confronting DOD/military and the Department of Veterans Affairs medical care are that of maintaining or increasing the 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. In this report, we describe the outcome of VR-GET, for the treatment of combat-related PTSD, in a warrior who experienced no treatment for his PTSD for the 10 years following his return from combat duty.