Smartphone app reduces stress for anxious people

Date: Mar-19-2014New research published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science

suggests playing a science-based app on a smartphone for 25 minutes can reduce levels of anxiety

in people who are stressed.

The authors suggest turning scientifically supported interventions into game apps offers a

new way to attain measurable mental health and behavioral benefits for people who have high

levels of anxiety.

Lead author Dr. Tracy Dennis, a clinical psychologist of Hunter College, The City University

of New York, says given the huge gap between need and ease of access to mental health services,

it is essential to look for alternative ways of delivering treatment in ways that are more

affordable, engaging and accessible - hence the idea of a smartphone app.

"Millions of people suffering from psychological distress fail to seek or receive mental

health services," says Dr. Dennis, "A key factor here is that many evidence-based treatments are

burdensome - time consuming, expensive, difficult to access, and perceived as stigmatizing."

Study tested app based on attention-bias modification training

The new app is a "game" based on a new cognitive approach to treating anxiety known as

attention-bias modification training (ABMT).

The core principle of ABMT is to train patients to ignore a perceived threat and to turn

their attention instead to a non-threatening stimulus. For example, to ignore an angry face and

focus instead on a happy or neutral face.

Researchers have created a new smartphone "game" which they say may reduce anxiety in stressed individuals when played for 25 minutes.

The approach has been shown to reduce worry and stress in people with high anxiety.

The app tested in the study is a game where the player follows two characters around the

screen and has to trace their paths as quickly and accurately as possible.

The researchers recruited 78 participants who had scored high on an anxiety survey and

invited them to play the game for either 25 or 45 minutes, and then give a short speech while

being recorded on video - a stressful experience for them to undergo.

Meanwhile, another comparison group of high anxiety participants played a dummy game not

designed on ABMT principles, and also gave speeches that were recorded.

The researchers then assessed the amount of nervous behavior on the videos, and the

participants reported their feelings about their performance.

Playing the ABTM-based app led to reduced anxiety symptoms during stressful event

The results showed that the participants who played the ABTM-based app showed less nervous

behavior and reported less negative feelings about their speech than those who played the placebo

game.

Dr. Dennis says that even the shorter, 25-minute version of the ABMT app had "potent effects on

anxiety and stress measured in the lab," and explains:

"This is good news in terms of the potential to translate these technologies into mobile app

format because use of apps tends to be brief and 'on the go.'"

She says further investigation is already under way to find out if even shorter versions of

the game - similar in length to others played on smartphones - will also be of measurable

benefit to people with high anxiety, for example:

"We're examining whether use of the app in brief 10-minute sessions over the course of a

month successfully reduces stress and promotes positive birth outcomes in moderately anxious

pregnant women."

The hope is to develop smartphone-based personal tools for mental health

So far, the app has only been tested on people who score high on anxiety surveys - it has not

been tested on people with clinically diagnosed anxiety. Nevertheless, the researchers believe

their findings furnish a compelling case to develop ABMT apps as "cognitive vaccines" to prevent

anxiety and stress.

It may even be possible to develop apps for other mental health conditions,

as Dr. Dennis explains:

"Our hope is to develop highly accessible and engaging evidence-based mobile intervention

strategies that can be used in conjunction with traditional therapy or that can be 'self-

curated' by the individual as personal tools to promote mental wellness."

The National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Minority Health and

Health Disparities supported the study.

Medical News Today recently learned how smartphones might be used to diagnose

diseases in real time. Using nanotechnology that will only require a smartphone and a $20

lens attachment to read results, a team from the US is developing a fast, cheap disease

diagnostic system that they hope one day could be used in the field, such as to help first

responders at an industrial accident quickly assess any danger.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD




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