Dexamethasone Plus Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD

Virtual reality exposure (VRE) therapy is a form of exposure therapy in which participants are helped to confront their traumatic memories in a therapeutic manner. They describe the events out loud and their therapist attempts to match what they are describing in the virtual reality. This is done repeatedly, allowing distress associated with these memories to decrease. Material that emerges during the VRE exposure is processed, or discussed, after the exposure, allowing participants to think about themselves and the event differently.

A dose of DEX will be given the night before (approximately 10 hours before) each of 5 to 11 individual virtual reality exposure (VRE) therapy sessions.