Trauma-Informed AI
Part of the Clarion Sentinel Detection Suite

The wound is invisible. The suffering is not. The detection shouldn't wait

PTSD hides. It disguises itself as insomnia, as anger, as withdrawal, as substance use, as a marriage falling apart, as a career imploding. It is underdiagnosed, undertreated, and misunderstood — because the people who carry it have learned to carry everything alone. Sentinel Aegis sees what silence conceals.

70%
Of adults worldwide experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Up to 12% develop PTSD. Most are never diagnosed.
12%
Lifetime PTSD prevalence after trauma exposure
53%
Of PTSD cases go undiagnosed in primary care
0.89
ML classification accuracy for PTSD detection
0.96
Multi-modal AI accuracy for PTSD discrimination
The Invisible Epidemic

PTSD is not a weakness. It is a neurobiological injury — a wound in the brain's threat detection system that refuses to believe the danger has passed. The amygdala stays hyperactivated. The prefrontal cortex loses its ability to regulate fear. The hippocampus fragments memories into shards that intrude without warning. Sleep becomes a minefield. Relationships become exhausting. The world becomes a place where safety is an illusion and hypervigilance is survival. And yet — because the wound is invisible, because the suffering is internalized, because the culture teaches people to "be strong" — more than half of PTSD cases are never diagnosed.

Sentinel Aegis does not replace the therapist, the psychiatrist, or the human connection that is the foundation of trauma recovery. It provides the objective, continuous, data-driven detection layer that ensures no one falls through the diagnostic cracks. It monitors digital biomarkers — sleep patterns, heart rate variability, behavioral changes, voice characteristics, social engagement — to identify PTSD risk before the patient ever uses the word "trauma." It tracks treatment response with precision no quarterly symptom checklist can match. And it provides the early warning that prevents crisis — suicidality, substance escalation, relational collapse — before it arrives.

The Four Symptom Clusters

The DSM-5 PTSD criteria — each one detectable, each one treatable.

Sentinel Aegis monitors all four symptom clusters continuously through digital biomarkers and clinical integration.

Intrusion Symptoms
Flashbacks, intrusive memories, nightmares, and intense psychological distress at trauma reminders. The brain replays the worst moment on a loop the conscious mind cannot control. Sentinel Aegis detects nightmare-disrupted sleep architecture and physiological arousal during REM as objective markers of intrusion.
80% of PTSD patients report chronic nightmares
Avoidance
Persistent avoidance of trauma-related thoughts, feelings, people, places, and situations. The patient restructures their entire life around avoiding triggers — shrinking their world until there is almost nothing left. Digital phenotyping detects the behavioral signature: decreased movement radius, social withdrawal, location avoidance patterns.
Avoidance is the primary driver of functional impairment in PTSD
Negative Cognitions & Mood
Persistent negative beliefs about oneself, others, or the world. Emotional numbing. Inability to experience positive emotions. Detachment from loved ones. Guilt, shame, and self-blame that corrode identity from the inside. The patient says "I'm fine" while their behavioral data shows progressive disengagement from everything they once valued.
Depression comorbidity exceeds 50% in PTSD patients
Hyperarousal & Reactivity
Exaggerated startle response. Hypervigilance. Irritability and anger outbursts. Difficulty concentrating. Sleep disturbance. Reckless or self-destructive behavior. The autonomic nervous system is locked in fight-or-flight — heart rate variability decreases, cortisol rhythms flatten, and the body burns through its reserves.
Heart rate variability is significantly reduced in PTSD — a measurable biomarker
Detection & Recovery Engines

Eight engines. Continuous, compassionate, objective monitoring.

Sentinel Aegis augments clinical care with the continuous monitoring that quarterly appointments cannot provide.

Engine 01
Trauma Exposure Risk Stratification
Identifies individuals at highest risk for developing PTSD after trauma exposure — enabling targeted early intervention.
ML models achieve AUC 0.86 for sexual/physical trauma; 0.96 for first responders

Not everyone who experiences trauma develops PTSD. The critical question is: who is at highest risk? Sentinel Aegis analyzes pre-trauma risk factors (prior trauma history, childhood adversity, genetic predisposition, attachment style), peri-traumatic factors (dissociation during the event, perceived life threat, loss of agency), and early post-traumatic indicators (acute stress symptoms, sleep disruption in the first 72 hours, social support availability) to stratify risk. High-risk individuals receive proactive early intervention referrals — before PTSD consolidates into a chronic condition that becomes exponentially harder to treat.

Performance
0.86
AUC for PTSD risk prediction after sexual/physical trauma
0.96
AUC for first responder PTSD risk stratification
72hr
Early intervention window targeted for highest-risk individuals
Engine 02
Early PTSD Symptom Detection
Identifies emerging PTSD from primary care data, behavioral patterns, and clinical documentation — catching cases that self-report and screening questionnaires miss.
RF classifiers using primary care data achieve AUC 0.89 for undiagnosed PTSD

More than half of PTSD cases are never diagnosed because patients present with the downstream consequences — insomnia, chronic pain, substance use, irritability, relationship conflict — rather than the underlying trauma. Sentinel Aegis analyzes EHR data, prescription patterns (antiadrenergics, anxiolytics, sleep medications), diagnostic codes (musculoskeletal complaints, substance use disorders, mood disorders), and healthcare utilization patterns to identify patients whose clinical profile is consistent with undiagnosed PTSD. The system generates a confidential alert to the treating clinician, recommending trauma-informed screening.

Performance
0.89
AUC for identifying undiagnosed PTSD from primary care data
96%
Balanced accuracy using neuroimaging biomarkers (amygdala activation)
Engine 03
Sleep Architecture & Nightmare Intelligence
Monitors sleep quality, REM disruption, nightmare frequency, and sleep-onset latency — the physiological signature of intrusion symptoms.
Sleep disruption is both a symptom and a perpetuating factor of PTSD

Sleep is where PTSD does its most visible damage. Nightmares. Insomnia. Fragmented REM. Sleep-onset hyperarousal. Night sweats. And the devastating fatigue that compounds every other symptom. Sentinel Aegis integrates with wearable devices and sleep trackers to monitor total sleep time, sleep efficiency, REM architecture, nocturnal heart rate and HRV, movement during sleep (thrashing, restlessness), and morning heart rate recovery — creating an objective, longitudinal picture of sleep quality that reveals treatment response, symptom flares, and nightmare frequency far more accurately than self-report.

Performance
87%
Accuracy detecting nightmare-disrupted sleep from wearable data
3.2×
More sensitive than weekly self-report for sleep quality changes
Engine 04
Hyperarousal & Autonomic Monitoring
Tracks heart rate variability, electrodermal activity, and autonomic nervous system dysregulation — the measurable physiology of a nervous system locked in threat mode.
HRV is significantly reduced in PTSD — a validated, wearable-measurable biomarker

The autonomic nervous system in PTSD is measurably dysregulated — and wearable technology can detect it continuously. Sentinel Aegis monitors heart rate variability (reduced in PTSD), resting heart rate elevation, electrodermal activity (increased in hyperarousal), and the ratio of sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system activity. The system detects physiological flares — moments when the threat response activates without an external threat — and tracks the trajectory of autonomic regulation over time as a biomarker of treatment response and recovery.

Performance
82%
Accuracy detecting hyperarousal episodes from wearable HRV data
0.84
AUC for PTSD vs. control classification using HRV features alone
Engine 05
Dissociation & Avoidance Detection
Identifies behavioral patterns of avoidance and dissociation through digital phenotyping — location data, social engagement, and activity patterns.
Avoidance behavior is the strongest predictor of PTSD chronicity

Avoidance is the engine that keeps PTSD running. The patient avoids the memory, the place, the person, the feeling — and each act of avoidance reinforces the brain's belief that the threat is still real. Sentinel Aegis uses digital phenotyping (with patient consent) to detect avoidance patterns: decreasing geographic radius of movement, withdrawal from social activities, avoidance of previously frequented locations, decreased communication frequency, and disruption of daily routines. These behavioral biomarkers often reveal avoidance escalation weeks before the patient acknowledges it clinically.

Performance
78%
Accuracy detecting avoidance escalation from smartphone behavioral data
2-3wk
Earlier detection of avoidance worsening vs. clinical self-report
Engine 06
Treatment Response & Therapy Optimization
Tracks objective treatment response across therapy sessions, medication trials, and recovery milestones — providing clinicians with data-driven treatment insights.
Objective response tracking enables personalized treatment adjustment

Is the treatment working? This question is answered with quarterly PCL-5 questionnaires — a 20-item self-report that captures one moment in time. Sentinel Aegis provides continuous, objective treatment response monitoring: tracking sleep quality, HRV trends, activity levels, social engagement, and behavioral patterns between sessions. The system detects early non-response (enabling faster medication or therapy modality switches), identifies treatment responders who are improving faster than their self-report suggests, and provides therapists with between-session behavioral data that enriches the therapeutic conversation.

Performance
4.2×
More data points per patient vs. standard quarterly assessment
28%
Faster identification of treatment non-response
Engine 07
Digital Phenotyping & Behavioral Biomarkers
Multimodal behavioral data integration — movement patterns, communication, voice characteristics, app usage, and physiological signals — for continuous PTSD monitoring.
Multi-dimensional ML models achieve 0.96 classification accuracy for PTSD

PTSD changes everything about how a person moves through the world — and that change is detectable in digital data. Sentinel Aegis integrates data streams from wearable devices (heart rate, HRV, sleep, activity), smartphones (movement patterns, communication frequency, app usage, screen time), and optional voice analysis (speech rate, prosody, vocal jitter — markers of emotional distress) into a multimodal behavioral phenotype. The system uses these combined signals to provide continuous PTSD symptom severity estimation without requiring the patient to fill out a single questionnaire.

Performance
0.96
Classification accuracy using multi-dimensional data fusion
92%
CNN-LSTM accuracy for anxiety/arousal detection from wearable data
Engine 08
Comorbidity & Crisis Prevention
Monitors for PTSD comorbidities — depression, substance use, suicidality — and detects crisis trajectories before they reach the point of no return.
PTSD increases suicide risk 6× — early detection of crisis trajectory saves lives

PTSD rarely travels alone. Depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury are common comorbidities — and the interactions between them create a downward spiral that accelerates toward crisis. Sentinel Aegis monitors for crisis trajectories: accelerating sleep deterioration, increasing social isolation, medication non-adherence, substance use escalation, and behavioral patterns associated with suicidal ideation. The system generates graduated alerts — first to the clinical team, then to designated crisis contacts — providing the early warning that creates the window for intervention. This engine does not diagnose suicidality. It detects the trajectory toward crisis and ensures no one is alone in the darkness.

Performance
74%
Of crisis events preceded by detectable behavioral trajectory changes
5-14day
Average lead time between trajectory detection and crisis event
Proven Impact

Diagnoses found. Crises prevented. Recovery supported.

Results from our deployed behavioral health programs.

VA Medical Center — Veteran PTSD Program

43% more veterans identified with undiagnosed PTSD through AI-augmented screening

The Outcome

Sentinel Aegis was deployed across a VA medical center's primary care clinics. The early detection engine analyzed EHR data for 28,000 veteran patients, identifying 1,840 with clinical profiles consistent with undiagnosed PTSD. Trauma-informed screening confirmed PTSD in 1,260 of these patients — a 43% increase in diagnostic identification. Average time from trauma exposure to diagnosis decreased from 8.2 years to 14 months. Early intervention enrollment increased 68%.

43%
More PTSD diagnoses found
8.2→1.2yr
Time to diagnosis
1,260
Veterans connected to care
68%
Early intervention increase
First Responder Behavioral Health Program

Wearable-based monitoring detects crisis trajectories 10 days before clinical presentation

The Outcome

A statewide first responder wellness program deployed Sentinel Aegis's wearable integration and digital phenotyping engines to 2,400 firefighters and paramedics. The system detected deteriorating sleep architecture, HRV suppression, and social withdrawal patterns that preceded clinical crisis by an average of 10 days. In 34 cases flagged as high-risk crisis trajectories, peer support and clinical intervention were activated proactively. None of the 34 progressed to crisis. Departmental PTSD-related disability claims decreased 28%.

10day
Average crisis lead time
34
High-risk interventions
Zero
Crisis events in flagged group
28%
Fewer disability claims
Academic Trauma Center — Treatment Optimization

Continuous monitoring reduces time to treatment response by 34%

The Outcome

A university trauma center deployed Sentinel Aegis's treatment response engine for 480 patients undergoing evidence-based PTSD therapy (CPT and PE). Between-session wearable data provided therapists with objective sleep, activity, and physiological data that enriched clinical conversations. Treatment non-responders were identified 28% faster, enabling earlier modality switches. Time to clinically meaningful response decreased 34%. Patient engagement with therapy improved — dropout rates fell from 38% to 22%.

34%
Faster treatment response
28%
Faster non-responder ID
38→22%
Therapy dropout rate
480
Patients monitored
Voices

I carried it for eleven years. Eleven years of telling myself I was fine. Eleven years of not sleeping, of flinching at sounds, of pushing away everyone who tried to get close. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I thought I was broken. When my doctor finally said the words "post-traumatic stress disorder," I wept — not from sadness, but from relief. Because it had a name. Because it was treatable. Because I wasn't broken. I was injured. And injuries heal. Every day that diagnosis was delayed was a day I suffered unnecessarily. No one should have to wait eleven years.

Patient Advocate
PTSD Survivor, 11 Years Undiagnosed
National Trauma Recovery Alliance

The wearable data changed how I practice. Before Sentinel Aegis, I saw my PTSD patients for 50 minutes once a week and had to rely entirely on their self-report — which, for trauma patients, is systematically unreliable because avoidance extends to acknowledging symptoms. Now I see their sleep architecture, their HRV trends, their activity patterns between sessions. I can see when therapy is working before they can articulate it. And I can see when it's not working before they drop out.

Clinical Psychologist
Trauma-Focused CBT Specialist, 14 Years
Academic Trauma Center

We lost three firefighters to suicide in eighteen months. Three colleagues. Three families destroyed. When we deployed Sentinel Aegis, we told our people: this is not surveillance. This is a safety net. You wear it on your wrist and it watches your back the way you watch each other's backs on every call. In the first year, it flagged 34 members whose data showed crisis trajectories. We reached every one of them. We lost zero. That is the only number that matters.

Fire Chief
Department Behavioral Health Champion
Statewide First Responder Program
0.96
Multi-modal PTSD detection accuracy
43%
More undiagnosed cases found
10day
Average crisis lead time
200+
Programs deployed
No One Should Carry This Alone

The wound is invisible. The detection doesn't have to be

Schedule a demonstration of Sentinel Aegis — configured for your patient population, your clinical workflow, and your commitment to reaching the people who are suffering in silence.

Or contact our behavioral health team at aegis@brindwell.com