Designing and Evaluating a Smartphone-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Control Anxiety and Depression

Abstract

Introduction: Depression and anxiety are prevailing mental health disorders. The presence of several barriers in face-to-face approaches for treating these diseases and the emergence of numerous post-pharmacotherapy complications have made researchers embark on removing barriers in treating these diseases. The research on mental healthcare aiming to develop non-pharmaceutical treatments has presented and evaluated many approaches. One of these approaches is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which is effective in depression and anxiety treatment. This study aimed to design and evaluate a psychological program based on CBT and smartphones to control and alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression.Material and Methods: This study was framed into a 10-session randomized control trial with the assistance of psychologists and valid scientific books. It was designed and implemented in the form of an applied smartphone-based program. After selecting 45 samples and assigning them to intervention and control groups, the researchers examined the effect of the application-based CBT on patients’ depression and anxiety, then analyzed the results with statistical tests with SPSS software.Results: After the intervention, the data normality was confirmed by statistical analyses. Then, the paired T-test was used to analyze the pre-intervention and post-intervention data on anxiety and depression and the results were obtained with (P=0.001) and (P=0.002) respectively. According to the results, there was a significant difference between the results of the intervention group before and after using the software, while the control group manifested no significant differences.Conclusion: With its user-centered approach, this software develops a mobile health (mHealth) program that improves and controls anxiety and depression by providing an efficient therapeutic method within a self-care program and removing spatial and temporal barriers.