Benefits of Diving Training on Recovery for Veterans Suffering of Chronic PTSD: an Exploratory Study

Evaluation of the Impact of Diving Training on Recovery in a Cohort of Veterans Suffering of PTSD: an Exploratory Clinical Control Trial

Patients suffering from Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have difficulties in executive cognition that hinder their quality of life and make it difficult to recovery and to reintegrate them socially and professionally. These difficulties are particularly important for soldiers suffering from chronic PTSD.

The literature suggests that diving may be a complementary approach to improving cognition, in addition to its benefits on the quality of life of patients with chronic PTSD. It appears to be an intervention of interest to improve the successful recovery for veterans with PTSD compared to a multi-sport practice.

A French military rehabilitation program proposes the broadening of the relationships between recovery and reintegration by incorporating approaches in the field of positive psychology for soldiers with chronic PTSD. This program was organized for a group of 10 veterans for 10 days. Each morning, from 9 am to 12 pm, participants had sporting activities: mountain walking, mountain biking, climbing, canyoning and collective orienteering running. From 3 pm, they had individual and collective practical workshops based on PTSD psychoeducation, human resources competences and coaching, including a curriculum vitae workshop.

The investigators aims to compare this program included multisport practice with the same praogram included diving instead of multi-sport to evaluate the impact to recovery at one year

Inclusion Criteria:

• veterans
• having a chronic PTSD evaluated by a psychiatrist All soldiers included in this study were on sick leave for at least 6 months due to chronic PTSD and were waiting for a military invalidity committee pension. They were all engaged in the first step of the Omega project and had a nine-day HRT training session planned

Exclusion Criteria:

• the psychiatrist did not consider the clinical state appropriate enough to take part in the omega project