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Thrive app supports survivors of sexual assault
University of Washington Medicine is testing a new app that could change the way sexual assault survivors begin to heal. It's called, "Thrive".
SEATTLE - Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine said an early test of an app for people who have recently experienced sexual assault showed promise in preventing post-traumatic stress from the assault.
The results from a pilot randomized clinical trial of 41 participants are detailed in a paper published Monday in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. A larger trial is planned next.
The app THRIVE teaches coping skills and could be an important step in serving recent survivors who aren’t ready or able to access trained care providers according to Emily Dworkin, the assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington.
Dworkin and colleagues began creating the app in 2018 with the help of a web development company.
"In a perfect world, we would have face-to-face care that uses evidence-based interventions for every single sexual assault survivor who needs it," Dworkin said. "But the fact is, we don't live in a perfect world, and sexual assault survivors often have trouble seeking or finding help so soon after their assault."
According to the results of the trial, approximately 41% of sexual assault survivors still meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder 12 months after their assault. Several factors increase the risk of long-term problems, such as "coping by avoiding safe and healthy things that feel distressing or too difficult after the assault, and developing unhelpful beliefs such as self-blame," UW said.
Participants in the trial were randomly chosen to use the THRIVE app or a simpler symptom-tracking app for three weeks. All received brief weekly coaching calls from Dworkin.
"Use of the full THRIVE app reduced post-traumatic stress symptom severity and reduced the time participants spent drinking and intoxicated during a given week. In the THRIVE group, the percentage of participants who met the criteria for post-traumatic stress symptoms dropped from 90% before using the app to 25% three months later. The comparison group saw a smaller drop, from 70% to 46%," UW said in a press release.