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Abstract
The psychological consequences of armed conflict include not only post-traumatic stress disorder but also a wide range of comorbid conditions: anxiety, depression, cognitive deficits after traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain after amputations, vestibular dysfunctions, and sleep disorders. Virtual reality (VR) technology is a multifunctional rehabilitation tool that allows addressing each of these targets within a single technological format.
The aim of this review is to organize the evidence on the effectiveness of VR in four dimensions of comprehensive psycho-rehabilitation for veterans: psychiatric, neurocognitive, physicalpsychological, and sleep-psychophysiological. Peer-reviewed publications were selected based on a search in the PubMed database. The summarized data confirm the wide range of effective VR applications: from reducing anxiety and depression in patients with somatic illnesses to cognitive recovery after traumatic brain injury, managing phantom pain, correcting vestibular disorders, and normalizing sleep in chronic insomnia. The complex nature of veterans’ rehabilitation needs makes VR a particularly relevant tool in an interdisciplinary protocol.
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References
The Scientific and Practical Journal of Medicine
«P. V. Voloshyn
INPN of the
NAMSU» SI