I’m not sure why people are worrying about their watch alerting them to this. It’s hardly going to be big flashing lights saying, 'YOU'RE PANICKING, don’t panic, why are you panicking?'. Much more likely that your watch will buzz, and say something like, 'it's good to take a moment to relax from time to time, try this breathing exercise', with other settings so that close family etc can be alerted.
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Rumor Claims watchOS 7 Will Have 'Mental Health Capabilities' to Detect Panic Attacks
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I hope Apple with Watch os 7 will do the same with blood oxygen and sleep tracker at least with AW4 and AW5
Mmm. Not sure how useful is this. Having a panic attack is pretty damn obvious when it happens. You don’t really need a watch to make you aware of it. It would be more interesting to see how the watch would help you get out of the panic attack.
The panic attack feature won’t be happening this year. That kind of feature is a few years down the line.
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“Did you say metal hairband promiscuity? I found several references online with 2 fairly close to you.”
With the article saying it could advise people to pull off the road, it sounds like it may have some predictive value - to let you know you are approaching a panic attack before it is obvious. I'm not really prone to anxiety attacks but my AW heart rate alarm did go off once when I had a Red Bull and Vodka. I was fine but it did cause my heart rate to spike briefly. That was the first and last time I had one of those drinks 😂
What is creepy about alerting someone to a possible panic attack? At the very least, it may urge a person to seek medical attention of some kind, thus possibly preventing something more untoward.
If you're worried about a panic attack, then just go to your doctor and get drugged up, that is what most people do nowadays.
No, I a not on how heart monitoring and "EKG-capabilities" have been criticised by professionals.
When it comes to panic attacks, the problem I see is that it is partly an issue that is countered by behavioural therapy. Constantly getting reminded of "you're about to have a panic attack" might not be the best, but I guess for some people it might help. For a hypochondriac person (and there seem to be many of them) this can straight up be other self-reinforcing, positive feedback loop. Somewhat related is this:
in a group where side-effects were told the occurrence was elevated compared to the control.
I'd argue you can look at it from the supply/demand perspective if more people go to doctors, it will become more expensive, everything else equal. Healthcare is expensive partly because of inefficiencies, such as people seeking up the doctor unnecessarily, you can come up with a measures that will decrease the unnecessary visits, but many of these features are for early detection (with a ******** of false positives) rather than monitoring of actual condition. The use of Apple Watch as an alternative, often cheaper and more user friendly solution to heart monitors I do see as a positive. But for large portion of user base, younger, tech savvy people for example are not in the risk zone and whatever warning they receive is likely to be in
I agree, there is trade-off, but it is not clear where to draw that line and it is hard to model people's behaviour. Being less careful has been documented in other areas of research, with somewhat unintuitive results:
EconPapers: Are Drivers of Air-Bag-Equipped Cars More Aggressive? A Test of the Offsetting Behavior Hypothesis
By Steven Peterson, George Hoffer and Edward Millner; Abstract: An increasing number of researchers have hypothesized that regulatory attempts to improve automotive safety through
econpapers.repec.org
Panic attacks come from hundreds of catalysts - not all of them are hyperventilation or increase in heart rate. Plenty of them don't even demonstrate a drop in oxygen level. Some come from silent migraines, dizziness from ear disfunction... hypothyroidism which actually produce slow heart rates and a drop in blood pressure, or an undiagnosed diabetes. List is huge. If anything, this thing could spawn MORE panic attacks while people are trying to do healthy things in an unhealthy body.
Gold!
Apple Watch: “It looks like you’re stressed, why don’t you go buy something from the Apple Store.
I concur this.
Also, having had panic attack problems for the last 17 years, no it can't detect panic attacks just by looking at the oxygen blood levels. That is not possible.
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Another reason for me NOT to by this big-brother’s-watching-you device!!!
You are sorely misinformed about the Apple Watch. It isn’t tied to government Big Brother, or any other Orwellian conspiracy.
A user is informed about the different abilities of the watch, and he or she gives consent to invoke the various functions.
The watch isn’t even close to Big Brother government / company intrusion.
I’ve suffered with anxiety for years and have always wondered if Apple would ever include such a feature in a future release. It’s always made sense to me considering how a rapid heart rate is typically the epicenter of a panic attack, and the heart rate monitor on the watch is really quite good. If they pair this with some advanced AI and machine learning to accurately alert users of an attack, then this could really be helpful for folks like me! It could give me enough time to pull over if I’m in my car or take medication, if it’s able to predict one coming on, that is.
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Dude wtf are you talking about take off your ****ing tin foil hat. You’re just embarrassing yourself...
I should be quoting others as well, not singling you out. Inserting the medical perspective here:
- Panics are not typically induced by CO2 levels, they are induced by thoughts or sensations. You can’t spontaneous change your blood carbon dioxide and then panic.
- The hyperventilation of a panic attack blows off CO2 and causes levels to drop, called hypocarbia, not to rise. Among other things this has neurological consequences, such as visual changes, and tingling of the lips and extremities. You can even try it on purpose (in a safe position and space; don’t pass out!). Countering this is what the traditional brown bag is for.
- Panic attacks typically cause hyperventilation and tachycardia. The new Apple Watch may be able to detect both.
- True that other things can cause both. One is pain (let’s assume you’ll know if you have pain) and another is exercise (let’s assume you’ll know if you’re exercising).
- Another thing that can cause both is a heart attack. If the panic alarm triggers, the next step would be to use the AW to check your EKG. It could alert in the case of a STEMI.
- There are still others that can cause both, such as pulmonary embolus and shock. Neither Apple nor anyone else is going to produce a device that is universally accurate. As biometric modalities are added, diagnostic accuracy will improve, and things that an AW can detect will broaden.
- As others have noted, one problem with an Apple Watch detecting panic attacks (or, more accurately, a couple of signs that accompany panic attacks) is the self-fulfilling prophesy of making somebody at risk of panic attacks anxious about having a panic attack.
Hope this cleared up some misunderstandings.
Just because it is more important to you makes it more important?
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Companies have been working on the game changer of noninvasive blood glucose monitoring for decades, and this includes companies not new to the heath care space. (I’ve been following a couple but so far no IPO!) It’s notoriously unreliable thus far but as with most things progress is being made. You want Apple to will it into existence now? You want Apple not to come up with any AW biometrics until that one? Anything besides blood glucose you’re wishing for or is this your one pet metric?
I would love temp both body and ambient!
Given COVID-19 that would be very useful !!
Given COVID-19 that would be very useful !!