Tyler Matheny left with a serious question: What now? Asked after 30 days of in-patient treatment for alcoholism. Matheny, who launched the sober living app YANA earlier this year, said, “I didn’t have the faintest idea of what to try to do next.”
Specific, accessible care is important in managing substance use disorder. But, it is hard to search out something that’s both affordable, effective, and an appropriate match for your needs. “We can’t even remember our own war stories as addicts. So, we’re under no circumstances visiting remember someone else’s,” says Matheny.
5 Ways Technology helps People With Substance Use Disorder
Telemedicine could be a growing practice around the US, particularly as services move online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving beyond traditional telehealth and advancing substance use disorder treatment as there also are technology and treatment combinations. Below are a number of the ways experts are experimenting with technology to expand access and revolutionize care.
1. Machine Learning: PainQx
What is it? PainQx could be a medical device that “can objectively assess the intensity of pain in chronic pain patients.” Inaccurate pain assessment can result in poor pain management. While undertreatment ends up in readmissions and unnecessary suffering, overtreatment could create opioid dependencies, as an example. The patients’ chronic pain into levels of No Pain, Mild/Moderate Pain, or Severe Pain, are what the PainQx device standardizes and classifies.
What technology does it use? Called “supervised learning”, PainQX uses a kind of machine learning where from a training set of EEG recordings focused on identifying pain indicators, a model learns. The model finds patterns and creates a predictor algorithm that’s tested against another set of EEG recordings to validate accuracy.
2. Digital Therapeutics and Telehealth: reSET
What is it? reSET may be a 90-day Prescription Digital Therapeutic (PDT) for substance use disorder, meant to produce cognitive behavioral therapy to patients. 24/7 access and a provider-patient feedback data loop are included in a number of reSET’s features.
What technology does it use? While available online, PDTs are digital medicine authorized by the FDA and prescribed by practitioners. reSET is that the first FDA-approved PDT to launch and represents the subsequent step in telehealth.
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3. Biotechnology: Prapela
What is it? Prapela SVS could be a hospital bassinet pad that emits gentle, random vibrations to calm newborns experiencing Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). It significantly reduces hyperirritability and instability among babies, non-habit forming, and is sleep cycle-friendly.
What technology does it use? Boosting the brain’s pacemaker neurons — neurons that generate rhythmic activity, the Prapela uses patented technology called stochastic vibrotactile stimulation (SVS). This stabilization can enhance breathing and relaxation.
4. Artificial Intelligence: Woebot Health
What is it? Woebot Health could be a mental state chatbot for your smartphone that delivers cognitive behavioral therapy. An emotional profile of users over time, checks in on their psychological state, and provides strategies to manage anxiety and depression, are some of the things the bot builds.
What technology does it use? Tongue processing (NLP) is when software automates the processing, analysis, and creation of speech and text. Using conversational prompts written by clinical experts, Woebot tracks the user’s input and delivers an acceptable message to continue the conversation.
5. Virtual Reality: AppliedVR
What is it? An immersive virtual experience for patients with pain, stress, and anxiety is what AppliedVR’s Therapeutic VR Platform is. It includes over 40 content modules focused on relaxation, engagement, and mindfulness like guided meditation and breath visualizations.
What technology does it use? Video games can assist in pain management through attention redirection — it commands the senses with an immersive, constructed environment that effectively distracts the brain from feeling pain.
Like what the Addiction Treatment Phoenix AZ is founded for, facilitating addiction recovery and sober living is what causes a surge of smartphone apps focused on. Unlike the technologies described above, they’re largely available to the masses and thus include their own unique benefits and risks.