Virtually Trained, Virtually Treated

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this isn't about [w:Iraq] entering Second Life¹ - it is about medicine in [w:virtual world]s such as SecondLife. From Not a Game: Simulation to Lessen War Trauma:

Suddenly, insurgents hiding on a roof launch a rocket-propelled grenade. The ground shakes violently and plumes of black smoke cloud your vision.
Those images, produced when a person puts on a headset, are at the heart of Virtual Iraq, a simulation created to treat Iraq war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

By repeatedly encountering sights, sounds, smells and rumblings that evoke painful memories, experts say, veterans with the disorder can begin to reprocess traumatic events and become desensitized to them, perhaps suffering fewer side effects like insomnia, nightmares and flashbacks.

The simulation is available to a small number of patients at sites including the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Manhattan, the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington...

This immediately brought to mind some discussions I have had with Moriz Gupte (Ramesh Ramloll) of Play2Train². Play2Train recreates events for training, though - not therapy. The implications for mass casualty drill training does have a lot of potential in Second Life - but it still isn't therapy. There is schizophrenia simulation in SecondLife, but no actual therapy that I know of.

It seems obvious that to treat post-traumatic stress disorder would need a very immersive experience, yet so does training. So, how does one create an immersive experience in a 3 dimensional world? Specialized hardware and software, but for some treatment it doesn't have to be as convincing as the real thing. How far have we really come with these technologies?

Maybe we're just scraping the surface, but when therapy and training can use similar tools in practical ways.

¹Could be a lucrative contract...
² I'd written of Play2Train before; I visited and had some great chats with Dr. Ramloll. The sim is pretty cool too - some pics here.