Video Gaming Impact on Veteran Stress Disorders and Treatment: A Review

Video games have potential benefits for military personnel and veterans while abroad and at home. On deployment, gaming helps active military personnel decompress, eases the troubles of separating from family and friends, and builds a sense of community. At home, video games offer a way to escape posttraumatic experiences and deal with civilian reintegration. Video gaming presents an opportunity for military personnel and veterans to relieve traumatic stress and cope through comradery. Thus, it becomes important to understand veteran video gaming behavior and to optimize this modality to help with transitioning back to civilian life with the many veteran specific health sequelae deployments may have caused.