Can Wearable Tech Ease Anxiety During Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for PTSD?
Apollo
Fact checked by Nick Blackmer
Key Takeaways
Researchers are studying psychedelic-assisted therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
However, anxiety may be a concern for some people undergoing treatment.
Experts suggest wearable tech may be able to help ease session-related anxiety, and may offer benefits afterwards.
Researchers are studying psychedelic medications in conjunction with therapy for their potential for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While the drugs show promise, many patients express trepidation and concerns about using them. Now, experts are exploring whether wearable tech devices may help lessen session-related anxiety.
The Apollo wearable, for example, is a device worn on the wrist or ankle that emits silent, vibrating sound waves that reportedly help balance the nervous system.
“We realized after studying soothing touch that you could actually deliver soothing touch in a wearable form factor, which became Apollo in 2020 after lots and lots of research,” David Rabin, MD, PhD, cofounder and chief medical officer of Apollo Neuroscience, told Verywell.
The Apollo’s calming frequencies may be helpful for reducing anxiety before, during, and after psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions. A reduction in anxiety pre-session, or during one, may help lessen the risk of having a challenging “trip” experience.
Related: How PTSD Is Treated
Why Use Psychedelics for PTSD?
A common characteristic of PTSD is hypervigilance—when the nervous system is in a near-constant state of monitoring for any perceived threats. The brain may feel threatened by simply being in a crowded room. Hypervigilance can drive anxiety, which can further drive PTSD symptoms.
Various psychedelics, including psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) and MDMA (“ecstasy”), have been shown to reduce hypervigilance. That’s one reason they’re showing potential for helping to lessen PTSD symptoms.
These substances can also lessen fear.
In a normal state of consciousness, triggers related to a particular event can bring up trauma. Triggers may include scents, sights, smells, and more. Once a psychedelic takes effect, however, a patient often experiences what’s called “fear extinction,” the absence of fear in the face of revisiting a trauma.
The amygdala is the brain’s fear center. Psychedelics have been shown to reduce the amygdala’s overreaction to negative stimuli. With this reduced reactivity while on a psychedelic, a patient may be able to reprocess traumatic events without these sensations of fear.
“MDMA seems to work by amplifying safety mechanisms in the brain,” Rabin said. “It allows the patient to be able to go back and feel safe enough to reappraise and reevaluate the meaning of their own trauma.”
However, the process of undergoing psychedelic-assisted therapy may be anxiety-inducing. People might be worried about taking a substance that’s new to them, or they may be nervous about revisiting traumatic memories. That anxiety or fearfulness can be counterproductive to having a good psychedelic experience.
“We want to hit that anxiety and calm people down going in [to the treatment] so that they’re more willing and ready to receive what they’re coming in for and [don’t] fight it,” Rabin said.
Related: 3 Surprising Conditions Psychedelics Might Be Used For
How Wearable Tech Helps Prevent a 'Bad Trip'
During a trip, a patient may encounter some anxiety when their brain, newly on a psychedelic, is resurfacing a memory they typically avoid.
“If you’re in an altered state of consciousness, and then all of a sudden you’re faced with a really scary memory of the past, or a feeling about yourself that’s really uncomfortable from the past—you’re not prepared,” Rabin said. In this moment, a trip may turn challenging, or what people sometimes call a “bad trip.”
“Resistance to the material that’s coming up for work is what creates the bad-trip response,” he said.
This is one area where the Apollo device comes into play. Rabin said some of his patients undergoing ketamine-assisted therapy activate the device to navigate these challenging moments of resurfaced trauma or negative emotions.
When the device—which is enabled by a smartphone app—is activated, a frequency designed to mimic therapeutic touch is transmitted to the user’s ankle or wrist, depending on where they’re wearing it. Users can select from different frequency modes, such as “calm” or “sleep.”
Appropriate therapeutic touch can help signal to the body that a person is safe when their sympathetic nervous system is stuck in “fight or flight” mode, which is common in people with PTSD.
So far, Apollo has been tested in seven completed clinical trials. In a small pilot study focused on reducing stress among nurses, the 12 participants reported an average of 40% less stress and feelings of anxiety over the course of two weeks.
Related: Psychedelic Drug May Be As Effective as Your Antidepressants
Sustaining Behavioral Changes After Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
After a psychedelic-assisted therapy session, patients typically return to the therapist’s office for what’s called “integration.” Integration is done in a normal state of consciousness and is the process of making meaning from the psychedelic-assisted therapy session.
An important part of integration is incorporating behavioral change after a psychedelic session. For example, social anxiety is something that frequently co-occurs with PTSD. If a patient’s goal is to reduce social anxiety, the patient may want to slowly start attending small social gatherings. While under a psychedelic, the patient may have learned that social events are safe.
Putting the behavioral change into practice later may feel like a hurdle. Apollo may be able to help by sending frequencies through the body to keep the nervous system balanced, alleviating feelings of chronic stress.
"Apollo reminds you of some of the feelings you experienced with MDMA, like safety in the body," Rabin said.
Wearable Trackers in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Beyond
Dylan Beynon, founder and CEO of Mindbloom, a company that administers guided ketamine therapy for anxiety and depression, is a champion of Apollo. But he says he’s also interested in wearable health trackers.
"I think the future of mental health is going to look like having wearable technologies that are actually looking at physical biomarkers—things like respiratory rate, heart rate variability, heart health, cortisol levels, hormone levels, as well as cognitive biomarkers," Beynon told Verywell.
He’s particularly interested in heart rate variability, or HRV, before and after psychedelic-assisted therapy.
"This gives us a measure of the health of people’s nervous systems and how they respond to stress," he said. "We know that distress tolerance, or resilience, is one of the most important foundations of mental health."
Since physical health helps inform mental health, Beynon said he is also interested in tracking sleep to help gauge the effectiveness of psychedelic-assisted therapy for patients.
Both HRV and sleep can be tracked on some wearables that are on the market now. For example, Apple Watch, FitBit, and Oura Ring track these metrics.
With the added benefit of tracking something like sleep via a wearable, a patient can see their progress with incorporating healthy habits.
"What gets measured gets managed," Beynon said.
What This Means For You
Research on psychedelic-assisted therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder is emerging. If you’re interested in psychedelic-assisted therapy in a location where it is legal, talk to your practitioner about ways to reduce session-related anxiety.
Read the original article on Verywell Health.
