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Apps for Anxiety

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This Medical News Bulletin article reviewed a recent important study on mobile apps aimed to help children with anxiety. The study, published in Behavior Therapy, evaluated 121 apps found in Google Play and the Apple Store. These apps targeted children with anxiety and their families, and were meant to enable families access mental health treatment techniques to help their children. The study found that while most of these apps were free or low-cost, few of them contained evidence-based treatment components, with only 1/5 utilizing any form of exposure, one of the most integral parts of CBT for child anxiety. The author of the article discusses the utility of these apps along with or independent of standard CBT treatment, and also reflects on the challenges facing those teams trying to create these kinds of mental health related apps. With technology becoming an increasingly prevalent aspect of healthcare, it is important to stay up-to-date with these developments and understand how apps such as the ones reviewed in the cited study can help or hinder treatment.


Read [article] to find out more!


A copy-right protected version of the article appears in Behavior Therapy; you can read the abstract, or if you or your institution is already a subscriber, see the full article here 



			

			

				
				
				
				
				

				
				
				
				
				
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What Is Cognitive Behavior Therapy?
			
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a type of treatment that is based firmly on research findings.  It places emphasis on changing your cognitions (thoughts) or behaviors (actions) in order to effect change in how you feel. These approaches help people in achieving specific changes or goals.


Changes or goals might involve:


A way of acting: like smoking less or being more outgoing;

A way of feeling: like helping a person to be less scared, less depressed, or less anxious;

A way of thinking: like learning to problem-solve or get rid of self-defeating thoughts;

A way of dealing with physical or medical problems: like reducing back pain or helping a person stick to a doctor’s suggestions.


Cognitive behavioral therapists usually focus more on the current situation and its solution, rather than the past. They concentrate on a person’s views and beliefs about their life. CBT is an effective treatment for individuals, parents, children, couples, and families. The goal of CBT is to help people improve and gain more control over their lives by changing behaviors that don’t work well to ones that do.


How to Get Help


If you are looking for help, either for yourself or someone else, you may be tempted to call someone who advertises in a local publication or who comes up from a search of the Internet. You may, or may not, find a competent therapist in this manner. It is wise to check on the credentials of a psychotherapist. It is expected that competent therapists hold advanced academic degrees. They should be listed as members of professional organizations, such as the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies or the American Psychological Association. Of course, they should be licensed to practice in your state. You can find competent specialists who are affiliated with local universities or mental health facilities or who are listed on the websites of professional organizations. You may, of course, visit our website (www.abct.org) and click on “Find a CBT Therapist”


The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) is an interdisciplinary organization committed to the advancement of a scientific approach to the understanding and amelioration of problems of the human condition. These aims are achieved through the investigation and application of behavioral, cognitive, and other evidence-based principles to assessment, prevention, and treatment.