Apps to Keep You Sane and Sober

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If you’re worrying too much, drinking too much, or mulling too much, you might want to reach for your smart phone instead of calling 911 for help. It turns out there are some new apps on the market specifically designed to alleviate mental health problems, and evidence indicates that they work.

Feel-better apps have been around for a while, but few have grown out of clinical research, and until now, nobody has actually tracked their effectiveness. Recently, though, a group of scientists at Hunter College in New York set out to create an app to reduce anxiety using a therapeutic approach called attention-bias modification training.1 Singh, Maanvi. “Therapists’ Apps Aim to Help with Mental Health Issues.” 26 March 2014. NPR. 27 March 2014. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/26/294374936/therapists-apps-aim-to-help-with-mental-health-issues

They created a game called “PersonalZen.” According to the website, “Personal Zen is clinically proven to reduce stress by JUST playing a fun game. Built by a team of leading neuroscientists and mobile developers, playing Personal Zen actually retrains your brain to lower stress and anxiety.”2 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/personal-zen/id689013447?ls=1&mt=8

The game is set in a field of grass, where players meet both a hostile character and a peaceful one. While soothing music plays, you use your finger to trace the characters’ paths as they move through piles of rustling leaves. The idea is that the task distracts users from anxiety-provoking stimuli (the hostile character) and retrains the brain to ignore disturbing things so that users become able to relax in stressful situations. Project director Tracy Dennis explains, “What this game is doing is trying to train your attention toward the positive.”

According to an article just published in Clinical Psychological Science, when 75 users who tested high on the anxiety-scale played the game for a minimum of 25 minutes, they showed a significant reduction in anxiety. The researchers suggest that users could play the game between therapy appointments as an adjunct to treatment, or to train themselves to handle their own anxiety better. Right now, the app is available on I-Tunes for free. The user reviews aren’t great–people complain that the characters are hard to follow and playing for 25 minutes is too long,  although the developers are continuing to work on it. They’re currently testing whether the therapeutic benefit can be delivered in shorter playing sessions. But the biggest complaints were that people didn’t understand the rules of the game…or how to win! Unfortunately, for people who always feel the need to win, a Zen game with no winning may indeed be incomprehensible.

Meanwhile, a new app to manage addiction has been getting startling results when used to control alcoholism.3 Thompson, Dennis. “This Smartphone App May Help People Overcome Alcoholism.” 27 March 2014. Health.com. 28 March 2014. http://news.health.com/2014/03/27/smartphone-app-may-help-people-overcome-alcoholism/ Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that those patients who used “A-CHESS” for eight months after release from an alcohol treatment center were 65 percent less likely to relapse compared to patients who received other post-care treatment such as participating in a support group, but were not given the app. The app also led to a 50 percent reduction in “risky” drinking.4 “Smartphone App Helps Alcoholics with Recovery in Study.” 26 March 2014. CBS News. 28 March 2014. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-with-recovery-in-study/ Risky drinking refers to having more than four drinks, if male, or three drinks, if female, within a two-hour period.

A-CHESS stands for Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System. According to a report in JAMA, the app emails and texts users throughout the day, offering support messages and asking assessment questions. If the answers to those assessment questions indicate that the user is on shaky ground, the app sends a message to a support team, who then intervene. Think of it like having a 24/7 AA sponsor.

There’s also a GPS-tracking device built in that issues an alert to users to warn them when they get in the vicinity of a bar or liquor store. This feature can be individualized so that the recovering alcoholic gets special alerts in the vicinity of places that triggered his drinking in the past. The alert isn’t simply an alarm that sounds. Rather, it might be a video of the user’s child asking them not to drink, or a video of themselves recounting the misery they endured while drinking. If these things don’t resolve the urge to drink, there’s a “panic button” that connects the user instantly to an intervention, which can range from a relaxation technique to an immediate connection to a counselor or friend.

Drug addiction specialist Dr. Scott Krakower of the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glens Falls, New York, explains that the app works so well because, “…for people who are really battling with alcoholism, they need a lot of this type of monitoring and ongoing support. They do well in controlled settings, but when they leave the center and go back into their environment, they are at risk for relapse.” The app, it seems, stays on top of the user enough to leave little room for slippage.

Though A-CHESS seems to be effective, right now it’s not exactly affordable. The price-tag runs $10,000, but that’s the rate for an organization to buy a subscription to the product. It isn’t available to the general public yet. The developers are working on making a commercial version, so stay tuned.

A related product for suicidal patients has also been proving valuable. “Relief-Link,” says the i-Tunes page for the product, “is an innovative free app developed specifically for suicide prevention and more generally for improving your mental health that brings confidential and supportive help right to the palm of your hand!”5 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/relieflink/id721474553?mt=8   Users program the app with information about their mental health providers, their medications, and their insurance coverage. The app then tweets encouraging messages regularly, and lets users “track [their] mood and thoughts daily, create a safety plan, make a list of reminders (e.g. appointments, take medication, etc.) and [use] unique coping methods such as voice-recorded mindfulness and relaxation exercises.” If they feel themselves getting suicidal, the app points them to nearby resources. At the moment, there are no test results that verify whether it works or not, and there are only two user reviews–both favorable, though.

While some of us whine about the intrusiveness of our smart phones–hating that we can be reached day and night–and others worry about the radiation exposure, there’s no denying that the devices are here to stay. It’s good to know that they can at least be used for some good ends.

References

References
1 Singh, Maanvi. “Therapists’ Apps Aim to Help with Mental Health Issues.” 26 March 2014. NPR. 27 March 2014. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/26/294374936/therapists-apps-aim-to-help-with-mental-health-issues

2 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/personal-zen/id689013447?ls=1&mt=8
3 Thompson, Dennis. “This Smartphone App May Help People Overcome Alcoholism.” 27 March 2014. Health.com. 28 March 2014. http://news.health.com/2014/03/27/smartphone-app-may-help-people-overcome-alcoholism/
4 “Smartphone App Helps Alcoholics with Recovery in Study.” 26 March 2014. CBS News. 28 March 2014. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-with-recovery-in-study/
5 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/relieflink/id721474553?mt=8