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Science and technology
科学技术
Post-traumatic stress disorder
创伤后精神紧张性障碍
Battle ready?
士兵，你准备好了吗？
It may be possible to vaccinate soldiers against the trauma of war
为士兵接种抗战争创伤疫苗成为可能
WITH its deafening explosions, searing fires, dismembered corpses and stench of death, war pushes everyone it touches to the brink.
爆炸声震耳欲聋，通红的火舌四处蔓延，残肢断臂尸横遍野，臭气熏天，战场上，每个人都濒临崩溃的边缘。
Most recover naturally.
一些人会慢慢恢复，
Some, though, suffer psychological injuries that do not heal.
然而有的人一辈子都在受精神创伤的折磨。
The names of these injuries have changed.
这些创伤几经更名，
Once they were known as shell-shock; then as battle fatigue; then as combat stress reaction.
起初称作炮弹休克，紧接着是战斗疲劳症，而后又变为战斗应激反应。
Now, the preferred term is post-traumatic stress disorder.
如今流行的说法是创伤后精神紧张性障碍。
But whatever they are called, they are worryingly common.
令人担忧的是，尽管名称更易频繁，是指内容却大同小异。
About 17% of American troops returning from Iraq and 11% of those coming back from Afghanistan suffer from them.
从伊拉克和阿富汗回国的美国士兵中，各有17%和11%罹患此症。
The most common treatment is known as exposure-based therapy.
暴露疗法是治疗PTSD最常用的方法。
This asks those afflicted to imagine the sights and sounds that traumatised them, and helps them confront those memories.
医生会要求患者复原那些使其精神受创的画面和声音，然后再将它们从记忆中一一删除。
It often works. But not always.
虽然此法卓有成效，但却不是万灵药。
And it would undoubtedly be better if troops did not develop the condition in the first place.
毫无疑问，最重要的还是能将致病诱因消除。
With this in mind, a team of engineers, computer scientists and psychologists led by Skip Rizzo at the University of Southern California propose a form of psychological vaccination.
鉴于此，由南加州大学斯卡普·里兹博士组织带领的，包括工程师、计算机科学家和心理学家在内的科研小队提出了注射心理疫苗的构想。
By presenting soldiers with the horrors of war before they set off to fight, Dr Rizzo hopes to inure squaddies to anything they might witness on the field of battle.
通过向出征前的士兵展示可能发生的恐怖战争场景，里兹博士希望他们能适应真实的战地环境。
The idea of doing this developed from Dr Rizzo's work using virtual reality to help with exposure-based therapy.
里兹博士的这个想法来源于虚拟现实与暴露疗法的相互结合。
Such VR enables the sights, sounds, vibrations and even smells of the battlefield to be recreated in the safety of a clinic, and trials suggest it can help those who do not respond to standard exposure-based therapy.
虚拟现实能够在安全的诊所里复原出战场的画面、声音、颤动，甚至是气味，相关试验还表明虚拟现实对未接受暴露疗法的患者同样有效。
The success of such simulation led Dr Rizzo to wonder if a similar regime, experienced before actual battle, might prepare troops mentally in the way that traditional training prepares them physically.
模拟现实治疗法大获成功，使其设想类似方法能否运用在出征前的士兵身上，这样一来，除了军队提供的体能训练之外，他们的心理也做好了应对战争的准备。
His preliminary results suggest it might.
初步研结果似乎证实了博士的设想。
The virtual training course Dr Rizzo and his team have developed leads soldiers through a tour of duty that includes seeing and handling human remains, experiencing the death of virtual comrades to whom they have become emotionally close, and watching helplessly as a child dies.
在接受虚拟训练的服役期间，里兹博士的团队将引导士兵接触并学会处理死尸的方法，士兵还将体会到虚拟情境下亲密战友的牺牲，以及对儿童面临死亡的爱莫能助。
Unlike a real battlefield, though, a virtual one can be frozen, and events occurring there discussed at leisure.
虚拟战场的独特之处在于它可以随叫随停，学员也可以在体验之余参与讨论。
When that happens, a virtual mentor emerges from the midst of the chaos to guide the user through stress-reduction tactics he can deploy.
每当士兵情绪波动，不能自已的时候，画面上就会出现一位虚拟导师向他们传授适用的减压技巧，
These may be as simple as breathing deeply, or as sophisticated as objectively recognising normal reactions to stress, and thus realising that your own reactions are normal too.
既有深呼吸这样简便易行的方法，也有一些较为复杂的应对措施，例如让士兵认识到抗压反应的合理性，这样他们就不会再对自己的抗压反应遮遮掩掩。
To monitor what is going on Dr Rizzo's colleague Galen Buckwalter tracks physiological markers of stress, such as the reactions of participants' pupils to what their eyes are seeing, their electrocardiograms and their galvanic skin responses.
里兹的同事伽林·布克沃特博士负责对士兵压力状态下的生理指标进行跟踪监测。其中包括受试者观看图像时的瞳孔反应，心电图特征以及体表电流状况。
Dr Buckwalter hopes that as his charges become more psychologically prepared for battle, these markers will change in recognisable ways.
布克沃特博士希望出征士兵的各项指标能随着日益强健的心理承受力而变得更加易于辨识。
This will allow officers to identify who is, and is not, ready for combat.
这样，军官们就可以对每个士兵的备战情况了然于胸。
That would be an obvious boon.
心理疫苗的好处显而易见，
But it could also create problems, for it is a long-standing belief of most armed forces that, with proper training, anyone can become a warrior.
但问题也随之产生，因为长久以来，很多军队都坚信只要训练得当，每个人都可以成为合格的士兵。
Dr Buckwalter's work would undermine this philosophy if it showed that no amount of training was ever going to change some people's markers.
如果布克沃特博士的实验能够证明训练与指标并无直接联系，这样的也就随之不攻自破了。
If that were the case, should such soldiers then be excused active duty?
如果事实果真如此，是不是有些士兵就不能继续服役了？
As things stand, those with physical limitations who apply to serve in America are still recruited, but are given only work that they are physically capable of doing.
现实的情况是，美国军队对那些身体有缺陷的现役士兵依旧敞开大门，但只让他们做一些力所能及的事情。
Should applicants with psychological limitations be treated similarly?
对心理有障碍的士兵是否应该采取类似的措施呢？
Perhaps they should.
答案或许是肯定的。
For if it does prove possible to sort those who are likely to become inured to war's horrors from those who will not, one result would be a more effective fighting force.
如果挑选的士兵更能适应恐惧的战争，不仅能大大提高部队的战斗力，
A second would be the consequential elimination of one of those horrors—the psychological wounds that are often regarded by soldiers who suffer them as worse than physical ones.
还能降低心理遭受心理创伤的概率，因为在受过创伤的士兵眼里，心灵的折磨远远超过身体上的苦痛。
