Sargisson, R. J., Li, F., Lobo, D. A., & Roche, M. A. (2019). Using an acceptance and commitment therapy app to reduce anxiety for students and employees. International Journal of Psychology & Behavior Analysis, 5(2), 164–164. https://doi.org/10.15344/2455-3867/2019/164
Abstract
Smartphone applications may ensure greater access to services for the many people who experience anxiety and other psychological issues but do not receive adequate treatment. ACTCompanion® is a mHealth application that incorporates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles into daily exercises that assist the user to confront their negative internal experiences and work towards valued outcomes. We used a single-subject A-B design with nine students and 10 employees experiencing high daily anxiety. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires before and after app use. They completed the DAS-A regularly so we could monitor anxiety levels over time. Daily anxiety levels reduced in the intervention phase, and remained low for six participants for whom follow-up data were available. There was also a significant improvement in scores of anxiety, depression, stress, positive and negative effect, psychological flexibility, and mindfulness. Our results suggest that mHealth applications have potential to improve people’s psychological functioning.
Rights
© 2019 Sargisson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
