An interesting new iOS and Android app aims to help veterans overcome post-traumatic stress disorder. The free app, coined PE Coach (for prolonged exposure), was designed by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to facilitate treatment between therapy sessions.
Prolonged exposure therapy involves a patient revisiting a trauma memory with his or her therapist to emotionally process the event. The theory is that once the memory is processed, anxiety can then decrease and a patient can attempt to begin moving past it.
PE Coach allows the patient to continue confronting these traumatic memories between therapy sessions, since many psychologists agree that the therapy could be more effective if patients could continue treatment between formal sessions. Once a patient downloads the app to their iOS or Android mobile device, they can record therapy sessions for playback between sessions, which can help them go over what they processed with their therapist.
In addition, PE Coach provides information on exposure therapy, PTSD and its symptoms as well as assignments for patients to work on between sessions. And patients have the ability to take notes about their PTSD or memories within the app for later discussion.
The Departments of Defense and Veteran Affairs hope PE Coach will improve the quality and success of the treatment, but maintain that it cannot become a substitute for professional counseling. To learn more, visit the site.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.