PTSDialogue: Designing a Conversational Agent to Support Individuals with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Hee Jeong Han, Sanjana Mendu, Beth K. Jaworski, Jason E Owen, Saeed Abdullah

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious public health issue. Approximately 8 million adults in the United States suffer from PTSD in any given year, and 7-8% of the U.S. population will have PTSD at some point in their lives. Recent studies have explored eHealth technologies to support persons living with PTSD. However, current approaches are often unable to sustain adherence, leading to sub-optimal clinical outcomes. Conversational agents (CAs) can help to improve longitudinal adherence by interactively engaging users and maintaining social presence. In this work, we present prototypes of PTSDialogue - a finite-state CA to deliver evidence-based strategies and support self-management for individuals living with PTSD. We also discuss the design requirements and process of adapting existing eHealth content to interactive dialogues. Furthermore, we detail design decisions to address safety and ethical concerns to develop a CA for a vulnerable population.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationUbiComp/ISWC 2021 - Adjunct Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages198-203
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450384612
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 21 2021
Event2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, UbiComp/ISWC 2021 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: Sep 21 2021Sep 25 2021

Publication series

NameUbiComp/ISWC 2021 - Adjunct Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers

Conference

Conference2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, UbiComp/ISWC 2021
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period9/21/219/25/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Software

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