What’s Up
In line with its development based on principles from CBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), What’s Up identifies common negative thinking patterns and methods to overcome them with useful metaphors, a catastrophe scale, grounding techniques, and breathing exercises. What’s Up syncs data across multiple devices and uses a unique passcode to protect this information. One of the abilities that separates it from other apps is that it can become active in forums where people discuss similar feelings and strategies that have been useful for them. It is available in the App Store and Google Play, and it’s free.
Moodpath
Moodpath uses daily screenings to create better understanding of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. If needed, it provides a discussion guide to talking with a medical professional based on answers to its daily screenings. Included in the app are over 150 psychological exercises and videos to promote and strengthen overall mental health. It is useful in introducing how to discuss mental health with a professional. It is available in the App Store and Google Play free of cost.
MindShift CBT
Designed to assist youth and young adults in coping with anxiety, MindShift constructs an individualized toolbox to help individuals deal with test anxiety, perfectionism, social anxiety, worry, panic, and conflict. The app includes directions on how to construct “belief experiments” to test common beliefs that fuel anxiety, guided relaxation, as well as tools and tips to help set and accomplish goals. It is useful in helping teens and young adults learn about helpful and unhelpful anxiety, as well as to overcome fears by gradually facing them in manageable steps. It is available in the App Store and Google Play for free.
CBT-i Coach
CBT-i Coach, based on principles of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-i), is a structured program to learn about sleep, develop positive sleep routines, and improve sleep environment. The CBT methods used attempt to change behaviors, which in turn provides confidence that patients will sleep better on a regular basis. It useful as a first-line intervention in treating symptoms of insomnia. It is available in the App Store and Google Play for no cost.
Getselfhelp.co.uk
This website provides free self-help and therapy resources grounded in methods that teach the change agents in CBT that can influence negative and destructive thought patterns. Negative thought patterns include thinking in terms of all or nothing: “Nothing ever works out for me,” fortune telling: “I shouldn’t even try,” and overgeneralization: “This didn’t work so this will not either.” Getselfhelp.co.uk provides handouts on a wide array of symptoms related to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, panic attacks, social disorder, and more. The solution section of the website supplies interventions that can be printed and saved for future use. It is helpful for clinicians and patients in identifying an area of need and creating an action plan. It is also useful for clinicians to have as an augmented supplement for counseling and is free of cost.
The bottom line
When used correctly the resources that we have reviewed can essentially be deployed in a manner similar to how we use finger-stick blood sugar monitoring in the treatment of diabetes. Each of these technologies works best when combined with clinician input and periodic review. When used to supplement clinician counseling, the apps may help sustain motivation and provide insights and exercises that improve patient engagement and supplement the effect of counseling and/or medications that are prescribed in the office.
Dr. Skolnik is professor of family and community medicine at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and an associate director of the family medicine residency program at Abington (Pa.) Jefferson Health. Aaron Sutton is a behavioral health consultant and faculty member in the family medicine residency program at Abington Jefferson Health.