If someone is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatrist may put them in an environment that actually causes stress. Experimental wearable systems have been shown to make such treatments more effective.
In what is known as long-term exposure therapy, PTSD sufferers spend time in a physically safe place, but it can also be uncomfortable.
For example, a military veteran whose PTSD is triggered by loud noises may hang out in an arena while a noisy event is taking place. The idea is that over time, patients become more and more desensitized to such stimuli, and they no longer matter.
One of the drawbacks of long-term exposure therapy is the fact that psychiatrists are usually unable to physically accompany patients while they go to the provocative environment. Travel times and other logistics make it impractical to do so. As a result, patients must decide for themselves when they have had enough without encouragement or objective feedback.
That’s where the Bio Ware system is designed to come into play.
Manufactured by the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) spin-off Zeriscope, the camera consists of a discrete button camera (attached to the patient’s clothing), a Bluetooth earpiece, and an electronic module worn on the wrist. It has been. The latter device’s sensors monitor a patient’s heart rate, breathing rate, and stress level (via galvanic skin response) in real time, relaying that data wirelessly to an app on the patient’s smartphone.
The app sends the data to a secure online server, which psychiatrists and other clinic-based caregivers can access from their computer dashboards. The person can also view the environment and converse with the patient via earphones and an app while monitoring the patient’s stress response in real time. In this way they can reassure and encourage the patient. that too stress.
Medical College of South Carolina
In a recent study conducted by MUSC scientists, a total of 40 PTSD patients used the Bio Ware system during 10-12 long-term exposure therapy sessions. Half of the participants were supervised by a remote clinician, while the other half had to interpret the stress data themselves.
Both groups showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, but the guided group did particularly well.
“If I had guided someone around, I could see what they were seeing,” said Ast of Rutgers University. I could see the features, I could ask about their Subjective Units of Pain, or SUDS, in the moment, and I could help them do what was becoming increasingly difficult. So I go down the busy aisles or go to the cash register, with people there instead of avoiding those situations.”
A paper on this research, led by Professor Sudie Back, recently published Psychiatric Research Journal.
Source: Medical College of South Carolina, Zeriscope
