Ural Federal University: University Students Develop App to Assist Panic Attacks

The students of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Institute of Physics and Technology of Ural Federal University decided to create an application aimed at helping people with panic attacks. The team is participating in the university’s pre-accelerator program “Personal Effectiveness and Leadership in Innovation”.

The idea behind the app is to provide the user with various tools to minimize panic attacks: breathing techniques, special music, etc. Among them, in particular, is the game, which teaches how to cope with panic attacks and even takes on the function of a psychologist. It is based on cognitive tools and influence techniques that relieve a person from feelings of anxiety and reduce the intensity of fear in real time.

“According to the statistics we collected, most people in panic attacks calm down when they are distracted by some other factor, which is why we settled on these tools. In the future we would like to use smart gadgets, such as watches, to anticipate a panic attack, but this is still in the plans,” commented Andrey Dedyukhin, a student of the the Institute of Physics and Technology and a member of the team.

The application also will include a paid version, where users will be able to connect their own services.

“About 70 million people suffer from panic attacks. In fact, each of the team members has also experienced panic attacks at least once in their lives, which is why we decided to take on this project,” the team commented.