Using virtual reality environments, a psychologist at the Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles is helping treat soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The video-game feel of this immersive technology may draw in people who ordinarily might resist coming to treatment and instead suffer for the rest of their lives. In one study, 80 percent of the patients made huge improvements.
“We’ve taken something that started off as a toy and now it’s a treatment. That's the best feeling in the world,” says Dr. Skip Rizzo, who also is using VR therapy to help patients perform physical therapy and to diagnose children with ADD.