Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/GF0b2eu17dM Young people and adults with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder suffer from flashback-induced anxiety attacks that send the entire body into orbit.  Controlling the breathing rate using an electronic device helps those with PTSD relax, suppress anxiety, and better manage their symptoms. Clinical researchers from Atlanta’s Emory University reported their success with just such a gadget to the American Physiological Society’s spring meeting this week.  A stand-alone device called the RESPeRATE was used in a group of subjects with verified PTSD, and control subjects were given sham devices to use.  The working device produces tones to help the user pace the breathing to ever slower rates while the sham device maintained a normal rate of 14 breaths per minute. The PSTD subjects with most severe symptoms showed significant improvements in their heart rates, blood pressures, and sympathetic nervous system activity when they used the device.  This translates into relief from the eff