Use of Virtual Reality Techniques to Rehabilitate Military Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Review).

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder developing after a traumatic event like participation in combat activities. Objective diagnosis of combat PTSD and effective rehabilitation of war veterans is a current multifaceted problem with particularly high social costs. This review aims to evaluate the potential of virtual reality technique used as exposure therapy tool (VRET) to rehabilitate combat veterans and service members with PTSD. The review was written following the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The final analysis includes 75 articles published in 2017-2022. VRET therapeutic effect mechanisms were examined along with protocols and scenarios of VRET combined with other interventions influencing PTSD treatment like pharmacotherapy, motion-assisted multi-modular memory desensitization and reconsolidation (3MDR), transcranial magnetic stimulation. The necessity is substantiated of psychophysiological measurements for objectification of PTSD clinical criteria and its dynamics during treatment. It was shown that inclusion of VRET to the package of PTSD rehabilitation interventions positively affects the results due to the enhanced effect of presence and greater experience personalization. Thus, VRET may be an effective, controlled, and cost-effective alternative for PTSD treatment in combatants, including those not responding to conventional therapy.

[The Effect of Repeated Local Ischemia on the Temperature and Skin Microcirculation in Human Hand].

Thermal imaging and laser Doppler flowmetry were applied to study the effects of infrared (IR) radiation mediated by vascular response in healthy volunteers during regular unilateral arteriovenous occlusion of one of the fingers (4 times a day for 7 months with a gradual increase in exposure from 10 to 30 min). After repeated unilateral exposure, we observed consistent changes in temperature conditions and modes of thermoregulation of corresponding skin areas of both hands. We discovered a high level of positive correlation between the dynamics of IR emission from the experimental and control skin areas in the recovery phase after clamping, which indicates that systemic vascular response is involved. The possible mechanisms of post-occlusive changes in skin of the distal phalanges are discussed. These data suggest that multiple regular unilateral arteriovenous occlusions enhance the intradermal blood flow and can be used for the prevention of disorders of the peripheral microcirculation in various pathological conditions.

[Thermovision monitoring of neurografts in the rat]. / Teplovizionnyi kontrol' neirotransplantata u krys.

By thermovision technique and images digital processing, thermal fields and reactions of dorsal cortical surface of 15 white rats were studied through the intact skull in various times after transplantation of the embryonal visual cortex, amygdala and hippocampus into the visual cortex. After operation significant thermoasymmetries arise outside transplantation area which in early periods (2-15 days) are dynamic, and in 5-5.5 months become stabilized. At successful implantation, transplantat area in background state in late terms is not thermodistinct, and in pseudo-transplanted animals--is cooled. In transplantat area, a changed thermoreaction to light stimulation is recorded, and in early terms it is connected with thermal flow from neighbouring cortical sites.

[Parameters of photic stimulation and characteristics of thermoreactions in the cerebral cortex of the white rat]. / Parametry svetovoi stimuliatsii i kharakteristiki termoreaktsii v kore golovnogo mozga beloi krysy.

The dynamics of local thermoresponses in the brain cortex was studied through the unopened scull under patterned light stimulation of the retina in acute experiments on white rats by means of thermovision and digital image processing technique. The dependence of the amplitude, temporal and spatial characteristics of these responses on the size, retinal localization, focusing of the stimulus, its duration, number and frequency of presentation was estimated. The properties, significance and mechanisms of the revealed thermoeffects are discussed.