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Study combines “smells” of Middle East combat zones with virtual reality scenes.
ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s not quite smell-o-vision, but University of Central Florida researchers are kicking off a study that will combine a virtual reality simulation of wartime scenes along with the “smells” of Middle East combat zones to help veterans overcome post-traumatic stress disorder.
Because smells are so acutely tied to memories, researchers hope the combination of reliving painful experiences — along with the smells of war — will help Iraq and Afghanistan veterans overcome their anxieties.
Known as exposure therapy, the technique teaches people to face their fears by confronting them gradually.
“If you’re afraid of a dog, how do you get over it? By being around a dog,” said Dr. Deborah Beidel, a University of Central Florida psychology professor who is leading the study.
In the program, Beidel and a team of therapists will use software programs known as Virtual Iraq and Virtual Afghanistan — which look like a video game but simulate the experience of being in those countries — to duplicate the traumatic experiences the soldier witnessed.
Gradually, the teams will take the soldier back through the experience, talking about it and reliving it until he or she overcomes the fear.
And though researchers have been using Virtual Iraq for several years, the smells, Beidel said, may be a key part of reliving the experience. The computer that runs the virtual reality program is hooked up to a scent machine with 13 scents, ranging from burned rubber to gunpowder to “Middle Eastern spices.”
By pushing a button, therapists running the program can send off a puff of air that contains those scents — and have it travel right under the vet’s nose.
Adding scents to the Virtual Iraq package, said creator Skip Rizzo, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, was designed to make the experience more realistic.
“Smell is a real primordial. You walk by a bakery, and it reminds you of being 5 years old and your grandmother baking bread. It has an incredible capacity to activate old memories,” he said.
For Vietnam veterans, he said, the smell of swamps or even the scent of Asian food triggered wartime memories.
If results from the UCF study are promising, they may become part of Veterans Affairs treatment programs throughout the country.
Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury among troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been disproportionately high, according to a study by the RAND Corp. A third of returning troops have reported mental problems, and 18.5 percent of all returning service members battle either post-traumatic stress or depression.
Like Vietnam veterans — who said they dropped to the ground every time a helicopter flew overhead because that was how they were trained — many of today’s veterans find that the stresses they endured overseas have followed them home and are interfering with civilian life, Beidel said.