The human cost of trauma is immeasurable, and its economic impact is extensive. The $232.2 billion economic burden is a searing indictment of how we are failing millions of individuals who are struggling, both as a society and within our healthcare system. After spending more than a decade dedicated to introducing treatment innovations for mental health issues, what continues to be frustrating is our persistent failure to focus on addressing the needs of the patient, as opposed to the established treatment for the specific mental health condition. The mental health crisis requires a more aggressive approach: we need to adopt the mindset that getting a patient to engage in any form of treatment is the priority.
We can rightly celebrate the progress we’ve made in destigmatizing mental health conversations. Therapy and medication are, without question, vital tools. But when we talk about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition fundamentally born from overwhelming experiences that leave a long-term imprint on the body, our mainstream approach often feels stuck in the past. Further complicating efforts, up to 35% of PTSD patients don’t seek treatment. We must urgently find alternative care options for these individuals.
For too many, disproportionately women, who bear the heavy burden of PTSD, trauma is no distant refrain; it’s a constant, visceral state of living constantly on edge and easily startled. Yet, how often are these raw, physical realities of PTSD addressed directly, effectively, and early as a core part of treatment? The answer is: with alarming infrequency. Frequently, these bodily signals are minimized, or patients are primarily offered medications that may carry significant burdens, without also being empowered with tools to address the underlying physiological storm.
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We, as a healthcare system, have been unforgivably slow to embrace the concept and need for adjunctive treatments earlier in the patient’s diagnosis, which can provide individuals a better understanding of the complexity of their disorder, the very real physical responses, and a way to regulate these symptoms. Given that the average time to diagnosis for PTSD is often more than five years, this underscores the need for a more robust treatment plan. Moreover, the treatment plan needs to include new treatments available to meet the patient’s needs, such as at-home or digital therapeutics that will enhance the patient experience.
Nearly half of all Americans live in areas with a documented shortage of mental health providers. Even in supposedly well-resourced urban regions, I’ve personally seen friends struggle to find timely care for their children or other family members, sometimes waiting upwards of six months for an appointment. This is particularly troublesome for trauma survivors, where the number of specialists is very low and access to care is a large reason for this disparity. Patients are seeking options, particularly non-pharmacological interventions (especially for their children) they can access without upending their lives. As a parent, I believe in exploring effective non-medication interventions first for our youth, whenever clinically sound. This personal conviction is a pragmatic response to a system clearly not meeting the demand.
My convictions aside, what’s truly exciting is that mental health innovations are surpassing expectations. Currently, there are effective, FDA-cleared technologies that allow individuals to engage with a treatment that will address their trauma symptoms and fundamentally alter the mental health treatment pathway. Imagine, for example, being able to see your own (unconscious) breathing patterns on a screen, and how these patterns impact key respiratory measures in real time. Imagine that you can understand how these patterns connect to critical physiological markers like your exhaled carbon dioxide levels. This is not science fiction or a futuristic aspiration. By learning to normalize these breathing patterns, individuals can acquire an empowering skill to help control their body’s overactive alarm system, with lasting effect. For many, this is a transformative solution that significantly enhances their overall treatment journey and restores their quality of life. When a patient can visibly track their progress and feel the change in their own body, it fosters an unparalleled sense of agency and engagement, elements essential for lasting recovery.
For a significant portion of the $232 billion PTSD crisis, the most direct path to more effective solutions and better economic outcomes lies not merely in iterating on existing psychological or pharmacological approaches, but in broadly integrating interventions that directly target the body’s dysregulated response to trauma.
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Our healthcare system must become more agile, more responsive, and less resistant to evaluating and adopting FDA-cleared innovations. This requires payors to look beyond outdated reimbursement models and see the profound potential for long-term savings and improved member well-being. It demands that clinicians and patients have more accessible, evidence-based, non-medication adjunctive tools readily available in their arsenal.
As we conclude PTSD Awareness Month, let’s commit to more than awareness. Let’s commit to a fundamental shift: to move beyond a bifurcated, incomplete view of mental health. Let’s champion a system that treats the whole person – mind and body – and ensures that proven, accessible innovations finally reach the millions who are still waiting and still suffering. The cost of our current inertia, as that $232 billion figure screams, is one we simply cannot, and must not, continue to bear.
Photo: Oleg Breslavtsev, Getty Images
Joseph Perekupka is the CEO of Freespira, the only company to offer a medication-free, FDA-cleared digital therapeutic treatment proven to reduce or eliminate symptoms of panic disorder, panic attacks and PTSD in 28 days. Joe is a proven healthcare leader with over 25 years of commercial experience in multiple leadership and functional medical device and digital health roles. He plays an active role with organizations such as the Digital Therapeutics Alliance and DTx societies, where he maintains co-chair roles that are focused on propelling the DTx industry growth, and is passionate about creating equitable access to care for mental health patients nationwide.
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