Six Apps That Combat Depression and Anxiety

a post by Derek Beres for the Big Think blog

Smartphone addiction creates many problems: car accidents, poor educational performance, insomnia, relationship issues, anxiety, and depression. As with any technology—as with anything, really—too much is too much. Inattentiveness is a chronic problem. Yet the benefits to technology are also undeniable, which is why medical app makers are using this medium to fight back.

Smartphones may help provoke depression and anxiety, but new research from top Australian institutes explores apps that are helping users reduce the symptoms and even combat the roots of these disorders. Researchers chose eighteen randomized controlled trials, fourteen of which were published in the last two years, which cover 3,414 men and women between the ages of 18-59. Participants suffered from depression, insomnia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and other related disorders.

In this meta-analysis the researchers discovered these apps have a moderate positive effect over inactive controls and a small positive effect over active control conditions. In terms of apps themselves, cognitive training apps proved more efficient than apps focused on mental health.

When combined with traditional methods such psychotherapy and pharmaceuticals, this new wave of apps could become standard protocol in an integrative approach to battling depression, anxiety, and related disorders. Regardless of each app’s specific focus, researchers conclude “smartphone devices are a promising self-management tool for depression.”

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