Aye, aye, iOS: Navy selects Apple iPad for work on PTSD

One of the best ways to deal with crippling PTSD is to use biofeedback to understand and control how your body responds to stress. Now, The Office of Naval Research together with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is sponsoring development of an Apple iPad app to help the volunteers testing the system better deal with stress.

Using the Apple iPad and a heart monitor that clips to your earlobe, the volunteer will play some games specifically designed to reduce stress. The whole program is based on a system used by warfighters to reduce stress. The work will be taking place at the Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control in San Diego starting next month and the app is divided into four sections. "Know How," talks about stress and resilience and how to apply this knowledge to missions to reduce stress. "Techniques," deals with getting into peak mental and physiological condition in order to perform at peak condition. "Games;" lets them apply the knowledge that they have just obtained, and "Review," allows those in the program to track how the training has gone.

While undergoing this training, once the heart monitor starts making incoherent readings, it is a sign that the person being tested is under stress. Using tools like deep-breathing exercise or muscle relaxation, those training can learn what to do under real-life situations. And make no mistake about it. PTSD is a big deal as the military admits that 21 percent of its personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, which  costs more than a billion dollars in lost productivity and treatment expenses.

source: MedicalExpress via TUAW