Using technology to help battle PTSD

Using technology to help battle PTSD
Boston Globe
By Chelsea Conaboy
GLOBE STAFF
AUGUST 20, 2012

Brian Sullivan, a former Army bomb technician, quit treatment for post-traumatic stress when, he said, doctors began pushing him to take medications he didn’t want. His symptoms, however, did not quit.

Traffic jams made the 42-year-old Foxborough native anxious. Sullivan couldn’t go into a crowded mall. And he was haunted by the memory of a man who approached him while he was working to disable an improvised explosive device during one of two deployments to Afghanistan, he said. Sullivan faced a choice: Shoot, or risk that the man was a suicide bomber. He didn’t fire, but the stress stuck with him.

Last year, Sullivan, who now lives in Virginia, began using a smartphone application developed by the Department of Defense to guide him through breathing exercises when his anxiety began to build. The same agency launched another app earlier this year for veterans to use while in a particular kind of therapy, revisiting difficult memories with a professional. Sullivan became curious, and this summer returned to treatment.

Ten years ago, the resources available to veterans with PTSD who were unwilling or unable, because of geography or other factors, to be treated by a therapist were limited. Researchers are developing technologies to reach people like Sullivan wherever they are, putting tools directly into their hands through programs online and on their smartphones.
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