An Innovative Framework for Delivering Psychotherapy to Patients With Treatment-Resistant Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Rationale for Interactive Motion-Assisted Therapy

Frontiers in Psychiatry
Marieke J van GelderenEric Vermetten

Abstract

Despite an array of evidence-based psychological treatments for patients with a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a majority of patients do not fully benefit from the potential of these therapies. In veterans with PTSD, up to two-thirds retain their diagnosis after psychotherapy and often their disorder is treatment-resistant, which calls for improvement of therapeutic approaches for this population. One of the factors hypothesized to underlie low response in PTSD treatment is high behavioral and cognitive avoidance to traumatic reminders. In the current paper we explore if a combination of personalized virtual reality, multi-sensory input, and walking during exposure can enhance treatment engagement, overcome avoidance, and thereby optimize treatment effectiveness. Virtual reality holds potential to increase presence and in-session attention and to facilitate memory retrieval. Multi-sensory input such as pictures and music can personalize this experience. Evidence for the positive effect of physical activity on fear extinction and associative thinking, as well as embodied cognition theories, provide a rationale for decreased avoidance by literally approaching cues of the traumatic memories. A dual-attention task further fa...Continue Reading

References

Sep 1, 1989·Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport·M P Noland
Oct 1, 1973·Journal of Experimental Psychology·T Engen, B M Ross
Feb 2, 2002·Biological Psychiatry·Roger K PitmanScott P Orr
Mar 14, 2003·The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry·Eric Vermetten, J Douglas Bremner
Jul 13, 2004·Clinical Psychology Review·M KrijnR Biemond
Jun 7, 2005·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Alfons O Hamm, Almut I Weike
Oct 11, 2005·Brain Research. Brain Research Reviews·Jay A Gottfried, David H Zald
Jun 20, 2006·Nature Neuroscience·Jasmeer P ChhatwalKerry J Ressler
Feb 3, 2007·The British Journal of Psychiatry : the Journal of Mental Science·Jonathan I BissonStuart Turner
Jun 5, 2007·Journal of Anxiety Disorders·Mark B Powers, Paul M G Emmelkamp
Oct 30, 2007·Memory·Petr JanataSonja K Rakowski
Feb 4, 2009·Behavior Therapy·Kate B Wolitzky, Michael J Telch
Feb 2, 2011·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Kirk I EricksonArthur F Kramer
Apr 7, 2012·Brain Research·Y K ChangJ L Etnier
Feb 15, 2013·Frontiers in Psychology·Andrew D Wilson, Sabrina Golonka
Jul 12, 2013·The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry·Bradley V WattsMatthew J Friedman
Dec 18, 2013·The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews·Jonathan I BissonCatrin Lewis
Dec 19, 2013·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Lorenza S ColzatoBernhard Hommel
Mar 29, 2014·Journal of Traumatic Stress·Karen S MitchellAmy Street
Apr 23, 2014·Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition·Marily Oppezzo, Daniel L Schwartz
May 3, 2014·Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association·Charles W HogeJoshua E Wilk
May 16, 2014·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Richard D LaneLeslie Greenberg
Jun 25, 2014·Frontiers in Psychology·Sabine C Koch
Jul 9, 2014·The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry·Bessel A van der KolkJoseph Spinazzola
Oct 3, 2014·World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)·Patrick McGorryIan Hickie
Nov 5, 2014·Psychological Bulletin·J Cobb ScottBrian C Schweinsburg
Dec 3, 2014·Journal of Psychiatric Research·Kristin L SzuhanyMichael W Otto
Feb 24, 2015·Cognitive Behaviour Therapy·Mark B PowersJasper A J Smits
Apr 8, 2015·Journal of Affective Disorders·Bernadette M CorteseThomas W Uhde
May 29, 2015·International Psychogeriatrics·Mohamad El HajStéphane Raffard
Jul 15, 2015·Clinical Psychology Review·Joris F G HaagenRolf J Kleber
Aug 5, 2015·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Maria M SteenkampCharles R Marmar
Aug 11, 2015·Memory·Amy M BelfiDaniel Tranel
Sep 4, 2015·Scientific Reports·Ana Paula CrestaniJorge Alberto Quillfeldt
Sep 4, 2015·The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry·Mirjam J NijdamMiranda Olff
Sep 25, 2015·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Tom F Price, Eddie Harmon-Jones

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Jun 12, 2019·International Review of Psychiatry·Eric Vermetten, Jan Ambaum
Oct 1, 2020·Psychodynamic Psychiatry·Cathy R Schen
Nov 24, 2020·European Journal of Psychotraumatology·Anne BakkerMiranda Olff

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Methods Mentioned

BETA
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Software Mentioned

EMDR
VRET
3MDR

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anxiety Disorders

Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.