Technology and Mental Illness
How An App Could Help OCD Sufferers
Have you ever felt incredibly anxious while simply touching a doorknob? Has a dirty surface ever sent you down an emotional roller-coaster?
For OCD sufferers, 2,3% of the US population, this is everyday life. This misunderstood mental illness is often misdiagnosed and ridiculed by TV shows, leaving the impression that it is easy to deal with. Unfortunately, for many sufferers, this is an ongoing battle. Therapy is expensive and doing it alone can be a very challenging task.
Digital World
Fortunately, the sudden rise in technology, online resources and the digital world in general, there are solutions available to take some of the pressure off. Recently, a treatment app has been developed. This app includes videos that stimulate compulsive behaviors (for example, hand washing). The content in these videos consists of dirty surfaces being touched and imagery that triggers certain compulsive behaviors. Given the fact that OCD is best treated when exposed to what the sufferers fear most, this app may help with reducing anxiety or overcoming contamination fears. The app also includes a thumbs up or thumbs down system which allows users to rate their state of mind, their levels of anxiety, levels of disgust and the strengths of their urges to perform a compulsion.
Currently, diagnoses for this specific type of OCD are done by a clinician using self-report questionnaires; such as the Yale-Brown OCD scale or OCI-R. These help determine the severity of patients’ OCD symptoms. Other tests exist to measure cognitive rigidity and flexibility or the brains’ ability to adapt to new situations or rules which is greatly associated with OCD. CANTAB Intra-Extra Dimensional Shift test (IED) is one of the methods used to test cognitive flexibility.
Treatment
Now, only available treatments for OCD are either selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or cognitive behavior therapy and exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP). This newly developed app works as an aid to ERP therapy as it forces sufferers to look at videos and images that stimulate that part of their brain while giving them advice on resisting compulsions.
During ERP, patients are slowly exposed to objects they consider to be contaminated until they feel a rise in their anxiety. By avoiding usual behaviors ( compulsions) they are slowly training their brain by letting it know that there is no danger present, reducing the brains’ response to the perceived dangers and subsequently reducing anxiety.
The core of any OCD subtype is the brains’ flight or fight response which gets stuck on things that do not pose any real threat. The key is to train the brain and to slowly stop engaging in ‘flight’ behaviors (excessive hand washing, avoiding doorknobs) and to stay and ‘fight’ (touch the dirty surface, touch the doorknob) which in return engages the brains’ flight and fight response system and helps it realize no danger is present which will subsequently reduce anxiety over time and allow for a better quality of life.
Research
A recent study has been conducted where videos accessed via a smartphone app were shown to OCD sufferers. Participants of each group watched a prerecorded video of themselves performing different activities.
The first group of people watched a brief video of themselves washing their hands. The second group watched footage of themselves repeatedly touching an object which they felt was contaminated and the third group watched themselves perform random hand movements. The participants were instructed to use the app four times a day for seven days. Their symptoms were measured before and after the use of the app.
It has been reported that in the first group, OCD symptoms were reduced by 14%, in the second group symptoms were reduced by 21%. Sadly, there are no current incentives to further research this connection.
Conclusion
Using smartphone apps may be useful to complement existing therapies in OCD patients. However, more research needs to be conducted in order to improve the app and truly create an all-around helpful tool for OCD.
Given the fact that now more than ever, everyone is constantly using their phones, having an app that can help the quality of life for OCD individuals could truly be a lifesaver. These days apps are used for most all activities but there is a big gap when it comes to apps that help with mental illnesses. Combining technology with medical research, there is no shortage of what could be accomplished.
