A computational model to simulate development and recovery of traumatised patients

Abstract

In this paper, a computational model is presented to simulate emotional response of people after traumatising events, including their development, recovery, and the effect of group support. The model is built upon mechanisms known from cognitive and social neuroscience. Using the model, several scenarios were explored, considering both individual and groups of people. The simulation results were validated on a dataset of symptoms and recovery of patients with PTSD. The obtained model enables simulation and analysis of emotional response evolution of diverse personality types, and how extensible are effects of group therapy on patients with PTSD. Simulation results show that group therapy is positive but in the long term its effect reduces, suggesting that changing people in groups every period of time helps to keep group's atmosphere healthy, contributing to recovering of patients. The gain of group therapy also depends on the type of people present in the group which in some cases can be prejudicial to some members when dependent and toxic relations are formed between them.