Navy creates iPad app for managing stress and fending off PTSD

[onehandle]

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is co-funding an affordable, hi-tech, solution for managing stress that could help prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), helping warfighters and potentially saving billions of dollars in associated medical costs, officials announced March 6.

ONR, in conjunction with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is sponsoring development of the Stress Resilience Training System (SRTS), an iPad app training program that teaches Sailors and Marines to understand their stress responses and manage them by learning biofeedback techniques that work for their individual needs. The system will undergo field testing at the Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control (NCCOSC) in San Diego in April.

Lessening the impact of PTSD to warfighters, the military and the nation is crucial. According to a February 2012 Congressional Budget Office report, 21 percent of military personnel returning from overseas contingency operations (OCO) in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from PTSD. The cost to treat these individuals is nearly 3.5 times higher than for someone without PTSD or traumatic brain injury, which works out to close to $1 billion when multiplied by the total number of OCO patients.

"The SRTS app provides users with an easy-to-access tool that helps them build resilience toward stressful events so that when they encounter those events, the likelihood of experiencing PTSD or any other aftereffects from stress is reduced," said Cmdr. Joseph Cohn, program officer in ONR's Warfighter Performance Department and originator of the SRTS project.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-navy-ipad-app-stress-fending.html

[enlightenment]

1. Didn't they used to call that Bio-feedback?

Saves on counseling, I guess.

[TM99]

2. Yes, in a very limited sense, this is a form

of biofeedback.

Bluntly, it is a band-aid approach that saves money but does nothing really for those men and women who do suffer from PTSD.

I can't say that I am all that surprised by this, but I am very disappointed especially if it is used to replace actual counseling and long-term care if needed.

[HappyMe]

3. Good grief!

Those colors look like Dubya's Festive Wheel of Terror Alert.

I think that PTSD victims need actual counseling and care, not a damn app.

[Scuba]

4. "Instead of real help, which would cost money, here's a cheap app. Good luck ...

... oh, and thanks for your service. Well, not really."