Using Virtual Reality to Treat PTSD

Our latest doc is about clinic in Los Angeles that uses virtual reality simulations to treat war veterans with PTSD. With host Jody Mitic, a former master sniper for the Canadian military, this short doc explores the efficacy of these systems to treat a highly mysterious mental condition.
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[@Slim]

imagine him playing this with bf4 graphics rather than this 2001 ounter strike graphics.

[@djunior874]

There are videos of that with the oculus rift and Virtuix omni treadmill

[@rjc0234]

its probably something like virtual battle space, instead of arma

[@1adamgardner]

ikr looks like they use a wii

[@rjc0234]

Adam Gardner oh now that's unfair, its not that bad HAR :)

[@rjc0234]

***** we had a teacher that would host Black hawk down matches at school :)

[@marcusvirgo7979]

What a real Canadian hero!I also think it's great that he's doing what he can to let other people know that this kind of treatment is available.

[@KyleTOOTURNTSmith96]

I hope this can continue to evolve into something bigger to help people everyday. Thank you for shedding light on this technology. Very well done Motherboard.

[@Botoxcorvette]

was great to meet jody today. great doc, seems like there is a lot more to it than meets the eye

[@gukonni]

It's nice to see this technology can be used this way rather than always being used for entertainment. I also think VR CAN'T replace actual field training or real world experiences. I hope they don't come to rely on it too much. I mean, what if they use VR because it's cheaper somehow and fail to give police or soldiers enough real world interaction?

[@ThePaulgillett]

WOW! I hope this gets out to the vets that need it!

[@LindyOrwin]

Immersion and willing suspension of disbelief. Wonderful use. Glad the uses go beyond war to civilian uses.

[@SubscriberTano]

So he estimates they spent upward of a million dollars to create this simulator, which looks sub-par compared to other simulators on the market. Should have licensed the armed assault engine from bohemia interactive like the army does, saving them a ton of money that could be spent on research and development of the recovery program

[@PolarfuchsMusicFav]

Came up with this idea on my own some days ago and started writing my bachelor thesis about Virtual Reality and treating PSTD. And now i found this, awesome :)

[@jimreily7538]

What is your field of study if you don't mind me asking ? Are you doing a thesis by publication to journals, or a written thesis based on lab work ?

[@HoobaBros]

beautiful video

[@lanceseidman]

Amazing stuff.

[@bubbagurt2402]

Looks really interesting how they can help people with virtual reality. Especially people with bad cases that medication or counseling cannot fix.

[@davantlag2000]

It is incredible, useful, overwhelming system and technology....fantastic!!!

[@shananagans5]

Very nice. We have learned lots about treating stress in the last few years. Hopefully between techniques to reduce the chances of acute stress turning into long term stress disorders and more effective TX of existing stress disorders we can reduce unnecessary suffering. Now, we just need to get the military to acknowledge the fact that additional training on how to care for their own psychological needs may be of benefit when you are putting normal, healthy soldiers into extraordinary situations. Maybe take the angle of avoiding stress disorders is building better soldiers VS. the current view of stress disorders being a weakness.

[@GramoChopin]

Love that theme at the end

[@Datharass]

It's a novel idea in that you have the ability to single out a persons trigger that caused the PTSD, but I find the lack of realism to be counter intuitive to your goals. In order for this to work, it has to look and sound so real that it can induce fear in a safe environment. Coming from an 8 year combat vet, I hope this helps somehow.

[@jacksiwel84]

With exposure therapy, the goal is to get someone from stimulus triggers that are further away in intensity/distance to closer in intensity/distance. I wonder if rudimentary graphics could actually beneficial in the earlier stages in therapy before moving into more modern graphics. Super interesting all around. Would like to see an update on the technology.

[@kahunamcd1]

I hope this get funded like it deserves.

[@Finno1001]

haha im diggin his song about the jellyfish. that was a good tune!

[@Tomoslb1]

They should use the ARMA3 Engine

[@factoidsandquotations]

i thought all combat arms soldiers did the VR training. we used it before every deployment to get the rookies ready. I really dont see how doing it after a deployment would help, but hey whatever helps.

[@neoc03]

They should start a kickstarter campaign as well to help increase funding for this. I would gladly donate.

[@SHVINCveteranwatch]

The makers of call of duty should be teaming up with you to improve graphics and accuracy of the game play. What is taking them so long to join in - have you reached out to them?

[@RainbowManification]

+SHV INC It's all about the Benjamin's

[@theemptysquirrel397]

ccuracy of the gameplay? COD is no where near realistic. but if they do want to contact a popular game company who have made great and mmersive games they should most probably contact the creators of arma,

[@groovass65]

I want to go inside that light room sphere thing, stage X, or whatever it was called. So intense

[@olikar4018]

Just imagine to play battlefield with this EPIC

[@Zestence]

The graphics don't matter in this particular use. If the virtual environment is familiar to the user, the brain will fill out the rest. And in the end it's not about immersion, it's about triggering memories in the brain. In fact, detailed graphics might actually work against this, since adding a lot of detail to the virtual scene could potentially influence the memory itself.

[@iiAR35ii]

The Army already has simulations like this. The graphics are the same, and it has the same feel but you dont wear glasses. There are 4 huge screens on each wall so you can look 360 and be inside the game. You get real guns and everything. So this is kinda latel but helping soldiers is always a good thing.

[@londonparkourproject]

can some one explain why making them feel like they are at war again helps them to deal with PTSD

[@Hackified]

They definitely need to work on graphics, I mean the whole point is to break them as close as possible to the action they went through

[@Peter4101]

Dang man... I think I'd be scared shitless like him too. VR ain't no joke if you use it right.

[@PotatoTacoman]

I think it would be good if they had them play some arma 2 or 3. And have them do the msos with the track ir that they have. With other people i really think it would help soldiers with ptsd.

[@pit95tav]

why not try using ARMA for the VR

[@StarCrusher.]

pretty cool stuff

[@GreenSinic]

Isn't this a simulator using Bohemia's engine?

[@The3rdPlateau]

Higher Primate t-shirt. Good man.

[@JoeyTerrifying69]

I'm surprised they haven't approached Bohemia to use Arma 3. with its theatre mode and scenario creation tools. It could save them alot of development time.

[@bengordon4920]

I'm sure there would be plenty of 3d environment artists, asset designers, Animators and riggers, That would donate there time to this, I think it would be much more beneficial for the patients If the graphics were up to par, Much more immersible.

[@MartinK2011]

good stuff

[@carterbyers6172]

couldn't they have had better graphics? like use arma 2 for it? or just up the grpahics a bit, kinda hard to simulate it when it looks like its from 2002

[@Pengoose]

***** It doesnt matter if it is Unreal, Arma, Crysis it affects the brain differently because you know it's not real. Have you ever played a game that the environment was so realistic that you were "scared to death" or for a moment you forgot that you were in your game room and not in a desert or that you could die? More than likely the answer is "no"... Even the best looking characters and environments don't really look "real", they may come very close in specific situations but they are more beautiful or highly detailed visuals. It is just a fact we, at this moment, are not truly fooled into escaping our knowledge or subconscious, that it is just a game. So it doesn't matter what the visuals look like, to some degree, than it is a matter of using techniques that truly fool the brain into thinking you are actually in danger which can then trigger an episode of PTSD...from there you can then find ways to overcome it or treat it...hopefully.

[@mercurise]

+Pengoose Capybara +Carter Byers Agreed. As an addendum, graphics is not everything when it comes to using VR practically, such as in therapy form in the video. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but numerous studies have found perceived immersion levels to be high even when the graphics look somewhat bad (certainly worse looking than what we saw in this video) compared to latest AAA games to hit the market. Also, having too realistic graphics may sap attentional capacity (if you believe attention to be a limited cognitive resource) and focus attention on the wrong objective, which in the case of therapies is quite important to be focusing on the right elements.

[@nickdavidson8359]

anybody know the name of the song in the final credits?! it's beautiful!

[@77RONZO]

Arma the video game would be way better for this.

[@barretojazjab5894]

The most important person in my life has PTSD. So sorry about hearing about certain approaches for our veterans (by the way, I'm a retired combat veteran with 22 yrs in service, 10 of them away from my family) One example, in the civilian life a raped woman with PTSD doesn't want to remember her ordeal...but we put our soldiers again and again thru the pain (which I rather forget), most of us just want to move forward & my believe is that some treatments are responsible of the high suicide rate among us. Just my opinion, respectfully.

[@factoidsandquotations]

i agree i would rather just forget.

[@purugigi]

Have they done any more improvements? I see this is a couple years old.

[@raultv760]

I am a veteran from the Army and I went to combat in Iraq 2 times. I dont see how reliving those experiences would help me out. I mostly want to forget about my near death experiences and losing my brothers because every time I think about those things I get really sad and nervous. If you conduct this type of training before going into combat to desynthesized the individual, I can see the benefit from it. But if the individual has already suffered the traumatic event I dont find the purpose for it.

[@leoflores1994]

If someone can get this in to video-games they would get the money for the treatment amd would be in everyones hands to use. All they have to provide is session games to simulate events for a person individually. Or even many multiple simulation scenarios.

[@BrickTamlandOfficial]

they should at least do a cell shaded environment to make it look a little better.

[@davidleitman]

I wish treyarch or one of those big game houses could donate their game engines to help these people get part of their lives back...

[@neoc03]

Couldn't they use the ARMA III engine and modify it?

[@SomethingWitty1987]

amazing

[@OsmiumBullet]

By making them relive the horror

[@LOSGUERREROS619]

Imagine playing outlast with this

[@InquilineKea]

how about virtual reality + psychedelics?

[@user-lh8hc4ot4g]

3:09 The VR headset looks like the teaser version of Project Morpheus.

[@yazansakran3326]

Can I use this to play halo and skyrim?

[@VTeslaV]

Ever heard of an Oculus Rift?. if you have a good pc, it has WAAAY better graphics and resolution and everything. You can just play call of duty or Warthunder or so, games with good graphics.

[@pokemonfreaky100]

Wait, did you just use Call of Duty and good graphics in the same sentence? lol.

[@i_nameless_i-jgsdf]

Both work pretty much the same. Good or bad graphics is depends on the game not the HMD because HMD doesn't have any graphics in it. Btw ofc those games has good graphics besides they are made by the real game studio.

[@EricMazariegos]

Okidoki23 dude it looks really good on the one (or so i've heard) ^^

[@RampageZGaming]

Woah, did you just use Call of Duty and War Thunder in the same sentence? You're probably an arcade mode player. BF4, Arma 3, and War Thunder Simulator Battles. Playing COD is pretty much a waste of PC.

[@TOBORtheMighty]

Neither Call of Duty nor Warthunder have particularly impressive graphics. Both look good, but are nowhere near what a PC can really do. Just shows how low our standards are that Warthunder keeps getting praised for looking merely good.

[@EchadLevShtim]

The irony of how killing and violence is crazy, but the ptsd victim is the one who needs to be fixed, while society complacently justifies killing. In theory ptsd is a sanity check in comparison to how screwed up the world is. Especially when we see an example of trying to reissue a soldier back into submission to authority and participate in immoral acts. We have a mind that says, "This is wrong," while the government says get back to killing and watching things die..

[@kahunamcd1]

Damn I really wanna try that saloon game lol.

[@Rhian357]

I just saw motherboard and knew. This is for army veterans.

[@jtms9]

Name of the song in the credits/outro? someone?

[@RoofieTV]

Imagine running, jumping and croaching in Battlefield or Arma! That would be DOPE *_*

[@wild_greebo]

Anyone know the name of the outro music? Thanks

[@TheSIicedBread]

why cut corners on any project like this? reach out to the companies that have the base of what youre trying to accomplish.

[@RainbowManification]

+Chad Howell The companies that have the capabilities for this are for-profit, they aren't interested in something that won't make a buck.

[@Crizzoify]

Kitchener Represent!

[@YouKnoweMe1]

Excuse me for asking but what is PTSD ???

[@Zestence]

Post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as "shellshock".

[@NoobaruKun]

for a guy who lost his feet, he looks pretty damn fine walking, if i hadn't of known this from the beggining i would'nt have been able to guess that

[@nintendokings]

Didn't know Stephen Seagal was a psychologist

[@ZackJGames]

i think they ought to talk with the guys over at Bohemia Interactive... You know, the guys who made ArmA.

[@krampster2]

I don't see how this is supposed to treat PTSD, wouldn't it make it worse? Imagine getting a Vietnam veteran in and simulating that war. "BANG BANG BANG HERE COMES THE NAPALM!!! THE JUNGLE IS ON FIRE AND YOUR SQUAD MATES ARE DYING! IS THIS MAKING YOU FEEL BETTER!?!? ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!?!?"

[@nimeshwidanage3187]

The concept behind this is to give the soldier a form of acceptance and closure as to what may have happened by having him/her relive the events. I have heard of this before and it seems to have worked and if it continues to do so, then that would be an amazing breakthrough.

[@bobburnell5033]

Thinking of flashbacks are 10x worse then what has actually happend. Its hard to explain but : Say you saw a scary movie, you are scared shitless for a week. You decide to watch it again and you notice its not as bad as you thought.

[@bobthoreau2468]

And now imagine Gilbert Gottfried yelling at you "BANG BANG BANG HERE COMES THE NAPALM..." XD

[@Francoberry]

it teaches people to deal with it. in the video, he talks about regulating stress etc - its designed to get you to be able to manage your emotions in normal life

[@Johngreen-eb1nj]

Francoberry I disagree with you. I bet you don't HAVE SEVERE PTSD. I do. I live with the horror of hearing explosions everyday that are not there. I cant enjoy a campfire anymore or watch a tv show that has explosions as it sends me back to that horrific day. He krampster2, I agree with you 100%

[@lisalove9182]

Take me to virtual classic rock concerts.

[@carson5586]

Can they do this with math tests ptmtd

[@HochstartHarry]

gta san andreas graphics

[@jaronditommaso9517]

maybe I should play dayz in VR to overcome my PTSD from being kidnapped? lol lock the thing to my head , get surround sound.

[@Icureditwithmybrain]

0:36 The answer is because you were psychologically and emotionally prepared for war and they weren't.

[@RemRanda]

I think this whole thing looks promising. But one thing that is not sitting well with me at all is, how the guy said Call of Duty cost 250 Mil to make and how their budget could not get anywhere near that. How the hell could they not donate, (give whatever you want to call it) the Call of Duty engine to this cause? From what I understand and I could very well be wrong, so please correct me if I am, but the engine is the most expensive part. After that its just making the storyline/map. I don't know. Just what I was thinking. carry on.

[@dannydang4738]

Why not use ARMA 3?

[@zxtmasmith9883]

Danny Dang Because it's primitive compared to the power of VBS 3

[@Pengoose]

ZXTMA Smith In regards to the power of VBS3 vs. Arma 3, they built off the same engine and are basically the same program except one is geared more for entertainment and removes a few layers of realistic data that are used to train military in command and control among other things. The only difference is BI Studios in Prague handles the Arma side and BI Studios in USA, UK, etc. deal strictly in the military sales and deployment. Neither software would make a difference in this PTSD case, so I am not defending Danny's question or supporting yours, just mentioning that they are the same software.

[@fourtyfourmag]

this can "only" help? how about not go to war i think that would help even more

[@MrPlausibleDenial]

Looks like he's a JRE listener.

[@AshaHay]

I didn't know Steven Segal was treating PTSD these days

[@baron8107]

Things like Airsoft and Woodsball work well as self-treatment, from what I hear...

[@zerologic3847]

the director reminds me of jesse ventura

[@lamyisdaeadxd9853]

onward is better for this purpose purpose

[@dovydasstankevicius1307]

idk why but Rizzo reminds me of Steven Seagal :D

[@richoz27]

Don't go to war in the first place!

[@kaydee6956]

***** you mean your oil depends on it

[@miked1997]

Kay Dee hahahahaha

[@miked1997]

Kay Dee fuck off

[@DarkAngelEU]

***** If you live in the western world there is absolutely NO threat and all wars are caused by Americans or just mingling in wars we don't have affairs with. So yeah, there goes your "freedom"

[@miked1997]

If we just kept to ourselves the conflicts in the middle east would overflow into other countries then it already has, and if we let the taliban control afghanistan, they would continue to allow Al Queda to stay there, and since they would have a whole country to train in, terrorist attacks in the west would become even more of a risk. They can't launch a full scale attack on the US mainland, but terrorist attacks are a real threat, and have happened before. If we didn't take out the taliban government in afghanistan, we would have experienced more bombings/attacks in the west then we have now. the problem is people like you who don't know anything assume the only threat can come from conventional wars, and since there isn't one, we don't need to be fighting, but times have changed, and conventional wars are a thing of the past.

[@twistedfarker]

Anyone else remember him from The Amazing Race Canada?

[@WraithTheDayZBandit]

the game is virtual battle system Arma 3 is the cheaper and graphically far superior game version of the sim

[@mangkanor3982]

use Arma 3 and work with Bohemia

[@khanshi]

no fucking way Kitchener Ontario!!

[@rtsons9367]

I came here from Watchmojo because I thought I recognized Jody

[@bobburnell5033]

I want VR goggles that causes PTSD.

[@AlbyTheMovieCreator]

this guy looks like steven segal

[@WraithTheDayZBandit]

is that arma they are playing holy shit

[@clownworldhouse]

I hope to use Virtual Reality to cure my boredom.

[@NewWaveArch90]

Strange they're using the Sony HMD, it's terrible compared to the Rift, not immersive at all, and no sense of presence.

[@lancesarty4483]

Gamersgonecrazy03 It is Sony's HMD and its obvious because it doesn't look like Project Morpheus. Even if it was Project Morpheus i'm pretty sure that they wouldn't be using other controllers instead of the ps4 controller. This headmounted display was created by sony to watch movies and stuff

[@lancesarty4483]

I don't think that Project Morpheus is even released to any but Sony themselves

[@VimpiricalSociety]

DMT and Shrooms are HIGHLY effective at restarting the brains emotional responses and COMPLETELY natural!

[@TheCasualDream]

Any more info on this? running out of ideas to overcome my ptsd and emotinal issues. Been thinking about trying magic mushrooms but have no idea how to use them to help with these issues.

[@TheHeFisher]

The game is made in unity.

[@Johngreen-eb1nj]

I don't agree with this one bit. I have severe PTSD. Don't see how this can help. The only thing I can see it doing is causing more and more problems.

[@EyeofValor]

John green I don't see how. The scenarios could help some deal with situations they have already been in that are stressful, might help them understand what happened a bit more. Also, talking about situations you would do over to improve situations is great for everyone deal with heavy stress or PTSD. How wouldn't this help you exactly?

[@futons1617]

lol this guy reminds me too much of james belushi hahaha

[@mecloc4453]

playing video games for psychological disorders cool

[@wnynj1213]

Man i really feel like COD and BF4 should help this company's update their graphics and mechanics to better help this soldiers relive this things that have happened to them to hopefully help them get over it. because i mean both this company's are making games about our soldiers and making millions off dollars from it so the least they can do is maybe get some of their workers to help fix the game and maybe give them some things from their games and Engines to help out

[@MegaDoctorGames]

That's a prototype of Sony's VR headset!