Post–October 7 Innovation Turns Israel Into a Global ‘Petri Dish’ for Trauma Therapy

Inbar Blum of the Israel Innovation Authority said more mental health tech companies are now piloting their solutions in Israel before expanding abroad

The music was still playing when the sky cracked open.

At 6:29 a.m., Nir Fridrih looked up from the Nova Festival stage and saw what no one should ever see — missiles arching across the desert dawn.

Within minutes, the dancing stopped, and the road out became a death trap. Two years later, the echoes of that morning still chase him through sleepless nights in Ashkelon.

“I see a psychologist,” Fridrih told The Media Line. “I take drugs. But still, I feel traumatized. I have anxiety. The images keep me up at night. I am not calm. Sometimes, I feel a lack of control.”

Two years after the Oct. 7 massacre, Israel is living in a state of national trauma.

“There are too many front lines,” said Yarden Abarbanel, head of Teva’s Support the Soul program. “It’s not just the soldiers, it’s all of us.”

Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Teva released new findings on the mental health of Israelis since Oct. 7. The survey, commissioned by Teva and conducted with Sapio Research, revealed that while more than 70% of Israelis are open to seeking professional psychological help, 41% of therapists say at least half their patients are not receiving enough therapy sessions.

Nearly half of Israelis reported a decline in mental health due to the security situation. Most connected their symptoms directly to the war: 73% reported depression, 79% irritability and anger, and 75% nightmares or flashbacks.

Three-quarters of respondents said they struggle with sleep and concentration, while nearly as many reported emotional eating. Feelings of helplessness were reported by 79%, and 85% said they experience existential fear and anxiety. Moreover, 86% said the ongoing captivity of hostages in Gaza has negatively affected their mood.

Finding help has become its own battle. Seven in 10 Israelis said they face obstacles accessing adequate care. Nearly a third (31%) cited stigma or cost, and about one in five (20%) pointed to a shortage of therapists and available appointments. As a result, roughly half of those who want treatment have yet to begin it.

At the same time, therapists themselves are in crisis.

Since Oct. 7, more than twice as many mental health professionals have been dedicating most of their hours to trauma cases. Nearly half have had to turn away new patients. Overall, 97% of therapists report challenges in their work, and 88% acknowledge a decline in their own mental well-being.

“Therapists are on the front line,” Abarbanel said. “After two years, they carry the weight of the country’s trauma.”

Abarbanel explained that mental health professionals are suffering from emotional overload, having been exposed to too many devastating stories. They have little time to care for themselves and lack the necessary professional support systems.

“There is no literature about it,” she said. “It’s the first time they’ve seen those kinds of events. And this is hard.”

The situation among soldiers is equally severe. According to the Ministry of Defense, more than 20,000 soldiers have been injured since the start of the war, and more than half (56%) are coping with emotional wounds. About 4,000 have already been officially recognized as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and another 9,000 are in the process of being recognized.

In total, the Defense Ministry said that of the 82,000 injured soldiers and reservists currently being treated by the rehabilitation system, approximately 31,000 — or 38% — are seeking help for emotional injuries.

This represents a dramatic increase compared with before the war, when roughly 180% fewer soldiers reported emotional trauma.

And the numbers are still incomplete. According to Gila Tolub, executive director of Israel’s Collective Action for Resilience (ICAR) Collective, for every diagnosed case of PTSD, there are an estimated 1.4 cases of depression.

“People are very much focused on trauma, but trauma also impacts depression, anxiety, addiction and eating disorders. All those issues have been climbing in the last two years,” Tolub told The Media Line. “And this is across the board — not just with soldiers.”

The situation is expected to worsen.

“There are a lot of things we won’t see until the war is over,” Tolub said.

She explained that society tends to “push away” specific images and experiences as a form of self-protection. However, those buried emotions often resurface later.

“There are many things that will start when the war ends, so this is something that we need to be aware of,” Abarbanel added.

For example, while suicides have actually declined during the war, experts warn of a potential spike of up to 30% among soldiers who have fought since Oct. 7.

The Ministry of Defense has also projected troubling trends.

Based on its data, officials estimate that by 2028, as many as 100,000 veterans will be recognized as having war-related injuries, and at least half of them will suffer from emotional wounds.

Moreover, according to ICAR, 75% of individuals with PTSD are at risk of developing alcohol-related problems or other addictions, adding yet another layer to Israel’s growing mental health crisis.

ICAR highlighted several systemic challenges, foremost among them the absence of a real continuum of care. NGOs, HMOs and the Ministry of Defense operate within their own frameworks, often leaving those in distress to navigate the system alone.

Yet ICAR also identified a source of hope: technology, described as a “potential connector.”

While there is no silver lining to two years of war, the bitter lessons of conflict may yield something meaningful: innovation born from necessity.

“Israel is a great sandbox for mental health technologies,” said Inbar Blum, director of planning and development in the Growth Division of the Israel Innovation Authority.

Blum explained that companies developing mental health solutions increasingly choose to test their technologies in Israel before expanding to international markets, where they face similar post-trauma challenges.

According to her, roughly 30% of the authority’s investments are allocated to healthcare, and a growing portion is now specifically directed at mental health.

Even before Oct. 7, Israel’s mental health system was under strain. Long wait times, a shortage of therapists and a lack of coordination between service providers made accessing care difficult. In many cases, no consistent methods were available for evaluating the effectiveness of treatments.

The Innovation Authority said that the rising demand for mental health care and these systemic shortcomings created an opportunity to rethink how treatment is delivered by developing new models and embracing technology that can improve quality and accessibility.

To meet this goal, the authority and the Ministry of Health launched a dedicated fund to build the infrastructure necessary for integrating technology into mental health services. The initiative supports the development of tools to measure and evaluate treatment outcomes, encourages the adoption of digital therapy platforms, and helps weave technological innovation into Israel’s public health system — creating a new framework designed to meet the country’s postwar mental health needs.

Blum said the program’s goal is to support startups developing new solutions and pilot sites testing them — whether in hospitals, resilience centers or therapeutic settings.

“This innovation should not only reach cyber but the people who need it most,” Blum told The Media Line.

The Innovation Authority has also assisted several Israeli companies in submitting proposals to Horizon Europe’s mental health innovation program. Winners are expected to be announced by the end of the year.

“Europe and the world understand that Israel has strength in this arena,” Blum said.

She added that a wave of new startups has emerged directly from war experiences, including in the fast-growing field of trauma tech.

A lot of new ideas came out of the war,” Blum explained. “People in reserves met new people, went out of their comfort zones and met new people beyond their immediate reach. And new ideas came up, and companies are being formed and funded.”

A lot of new ideas came out of the war. People in reserves met new people, went out of their comfort zones and met new people beyond their immediate reach. And new ideas came up, and companies are being formed and funded.

According to Blum, there has been a 60% increase in applications to the authority’s ideation program — an early-stage initiative that helps turn promising ideas into viable startups.

In Israel’s south, a new Resilience and Health Innovation Hub has also been established to address the country’s most pressing psychological and community challenges. The hub focuses on developing solutions for mental resilience, crisis management, disaster preparedness, safe cities, social cohesion, health care and education.

The Resilience Accelerator operates under Hamitbah — the Technological Center for Security and Resilience — and is funded by the Israel Innovation Authority.

Blum said the accelerator aims to nurture young startups and help established companies put their products into real-world use.

“They’re looking for more growth for late-stage companies in the mental health field so they can implement the technologies,” Blum said.

The Media Line explored several Israeli startups noted by the Innovation Authority that have emerged or grown since Oct. 7, including Haifa-based GrayMatters Health.

The company, according to its website, is developing and marketing an interventional psychiatry platform built on proprietary fMRI-informed biomarkers — the first of its kind to create digital, brain-region-specific biomarkers for mental health.

Unlike traditional biomarkers that measure tissue to detect disease, GrayMatters’ technology measures brain activity linked to depression and PTSD, offering a new window into how trauma affects the mind.

Another company making waves in this space is Mentally, an AI-powered mental health platform now being tested at Sheba Medical Center and in resilience centers across Israel.

Developed in collaboration with Microsoft and KPMG, the system, called LIV, is designed to help clinicians diagnose and treat PTSD and other mental health conditions using advanced data analysis and real-time insights.

Mentally’s technology is a clinical decision-support tool that integrates with hospital systems, analyzes patient information and generates personalized treatment recommendations. According to its website, it can also detect subtle shifts in voice or facial expression that may signal distress, making complex psychiatric care faster, more innovative and more responsive to the needs of both doctors and patients.

A third example is Reflect, an Israeli startup offering a simple, drug-free way to manage stress and anxiety through biofeedback technology. Its website explains that its handheld Orb measures the body’s natural signals, including heart rate and skin conductivity, to help users regulate their nervous systems in real time. The device offers lab-grade accuracy but an experience people can easily access at home.

Another Israeli company pushing the boundaries of trauma treatment is Madrigal Mental Care, which has developed an intranasal, nose-to-brain drug-delivery system that uses organic nanoparticles to carry medication directly to the brain.

The technology, the company explains, bypasses the digestive system entirely, allowing faster, more precise absorption and much lower dosages. The result is a safer, more targeted way to treat complex mental health conditions. Madrigal has completed successful clinical trials and is collaborating with major pharmaceutical and medical institutions in Israel and abroad.

Tolub said there is also new research on the use of psychedelics — from MDMA and ketamine to psilocybin — in the treatment of trauma. In addition, she noted new methodologies being tested, such as reducing trauma-therapy programs from 12 sessions to just three, and new approaches to suicide prevention.

There is growing experimentation with chatbots for triage and initial assessment, as well as programs that train students rather than professionals to serve as the first point of contact for patients seeking emotional support.

In March, Startup Nation Central, in partnership with ICAR and Bezyl, released Israel’s first mental health field landscape map for 2025. The map highlights a surge of trauma-tech startups born out of necessity and resilience.

Blum said Israel is uniquely positioned to serve as a “sandbox” for trauma technology.

We have many relevant technologies. We have great physicians and great psychologists. We are good at robotics and wearable sensors and can use these technologies and big data to optimize mental health.

“We have many relevant technologies,” she told The Media Line. “We have great physicians and great psychologists. We are good at robotics and wearable sensors and can use these technologies and big data to optimize mental health.”

Tolub agreed. “Necessity is the mother of innovation,” she said, adding that just as Israel became a world leader in cyber and defense technology, “it’s going to be the same thing — we’re going to become leaders in the field, and we’ll be able to bring this to the rest of the world.”

She said the world is now looking to Israel as “the petri dish for trauma.”

“Everybody’s looking at us to figure out what do you do when an entire population is impacted, and how do we move from treating people to preventing a population from developing psychiatric disorders after a traumatic event? This will be in terms of protocols and scalable technology.”

This is precisely what Avichai, an IDF veteran, has been calling for.

Speaking last year before a Knesset Subcommittee on IDF Human Resources, chaired by MK Elazar Stern, he said: “I was out there and saw people fighting like lions but completely broken inside. I heard them crying at night, I smelled the urine. You’re going to face a massive wave of combat trauma and related illnesses. I sleep well on the battlefield, but at home, I can’t close my eyes.”

In response, Stern said that Israel must become a world leader in rehabilitation and all related support systems, including community reintegration after discharge.

We owe this not only to the wounded and their families but also to future recruits and even to those not yet born,” Stern said at that meeting. “We are the Startup Nation. This should be part of that identity.”

We owe this not only to the wounded and their families but also to future recruits and even to those not yet born. We are the Startup Nation. This should be part of that identity.

Two years later, Israel appears to be embracing that call — with trauma tech emerging as a new frontier of innovation.

But for Fridrih and so many others, only time will tell.

Technology may advance, treatments may expand and data may grow clearer — but healing, like war, takes time.

“The images of what I saw that day are still with me,” Fridrih said quietly. “Only time will tell if I can ever escape them.”