The dynamics of
today's sociopsychological and environmental factors make it a
particularly topical task to provide the public with prompt
extradispensary psychological/medical assistance directly at work
and during studies.
The problem can
be effectively tackled, among other things, by way of large-scale
introduction of PC-based automated complexes comprising certain
means of on the spot diagnosis and adjustment of the human
psychoemotional condition (HPEC).
The TONIKA Automated Human Psychoemotional Condition Control System we are offering for introduction is a software/hardware IBM PC/AT-based complex for personalized control and adjustment of the human psychoemotional condition.
The system has been successfully tested at the Psychosomatic Department of the Sklifosofsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine (see "Experimental Clinical Application of the TONIKA Computer System" elsewhere in this book). The TONIKA system offers the following advantages:
operational
simplicity and reliability;
a database
management system which stores test results and interprets them
automatically;
an individually
personalized technique of regulating emotional disorders (prescription
of corrective programs based on psychodiagnostic results); and
automatic mode of
operation (after relevant parameters are fed in, the system
diagnoses and adjusts the condition of the subject automatically,
with no involvement of a professional psychotherapist).
It is essential
to underscore that computer diagnostics makes it possible to
substantially enhance the objectivity, promptness and
effectiveness of monitoring the state of public mental health.
This is of particular value in an environment of privatization
and medical insurance, for the technique saves a great deal of
the patient's and medical personnel's time. The specialized
diagnostic databanks (DDBs) formed by the system make it possible
to trace the dynamics of the patients psychoemotional condition,
to proceed in a professional manner in forming differentiated
"monitored groups" and to substantiate the planning of
various therapeutic and rehabilitation measures.
The system uses a Controlled Regulation of the Human Psychoemotional Condition Technique to promptly adjust, on a strictly personalized basis, the human psychoemotional condition directly in the course of the patient's occupational activities, thus considerably enhancing the effectiveness of preventive psychological treatment, therapy and rehabilitation of gainfully and actively employed persons suffering from nervous or psychological disorders.
Installation of the TONIKA system on IBM PC/AT compatible computers which are used widely on the Russian domestic market will lead to its extensive application virtually throughout the national economy.
Large-scale introduction of the TONIKA Automated Control System within the framework of extradispensary psychomedical assistance to the public may prove of practical importance in adapting the population to stress-generating factors and in the diagnostics, prevention and treatment of nervous and mental disorders. It can make it possible to achieve early and profound medical and social results in the provision of psychiatric and psychomedical assistance to the public in Russia.
[I.M.1]Review of an
All-Russian Research and Applied Science Conference on "Public
Mental Health in Russia (Social and Epidemiological Aspects),"
Moscow, 1994, pp. 253-254.