A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University has found that smartwatches containing digital biomarkers can detect early signs of PTSD among wearers.

The three-year study — which was carried out both before and after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack — involved more than 5,000 Israelis, and reported that such devices could sense the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder, even among those only indirectly exposed to traumatic events through the media.

“The percentages of PTSD and anxiety were extremely high among people who were not hurt themselves, or didn’t have a close relative who was hurt” in the Hamas attack, said Prof. Erez Shmueli, head of the Big Data Lab, and Prof. Dan Yamin, head of the Lab for Digital Epidemiology and Health Analytics, both at Tel Aviv’s School of Industrial and Intelligent Systems Engineering, who led the team of researchers in Israel and at Stanford University.

“The GoPro videos that the terrorists shared on TikTok and other platforms actually make you feel the events more closely,” Shmueli told The Times of Israel. “When we looked at the effect of news consumption and watching gory videos, we saw a real difference between people who consumed the news and videos compared to those who didn’t.”

While most PTSD research focuses on people directly exposed to violence, this study examined those indirectly affected through news and social media consumption.

The study, which was published on Wednesday in the peer-reviewed PLOS Mental Health journal, found that smartwatches, combined with questionnaires, can pick up subtle physiological and behavioral changes that foreshadow PTSD, and can help improve public health strategies.

The researchers........

© The Times of Israel