New research out of Canada's Grant MacEwan University finds the stress level of servicemembers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) drops when they play video games that feature combat scenarios. MacEwan professor Jayne Gackenbach studied the reactions of 98 servicemembers who suffer from PTSD. The gamer website GameKudos.com reports Gackenbach discovered...
What's interesting is that the troops who didn't play war video games still experienced symptoms of PTSD like nightmares, and feelings of helplessness in those nightmares.
The National Center for Telehealth and Technology, called T2, has a video game-like tool which uses similar logic to help servicemembers assess whether or not they have PTSD. The T2 Virtual PTSD Experience is a combat version of Second Life, and allows potential PTSD suffers to understand what the condition looks and feels like.
Here's a clip of the T2 Second Life video:
http://youtu.be/CtSVhP6DYp4
