Effects of online brain training on self‐reported mental health symptoms for generally healthy adults during the Covid‐19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: The cognitive training Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART) has been shown to improve symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress when completed using in-person delivery, but mental health outcomes have not yet been studied for online delivery of SMART. Methods: Data was analyzed from 145 generally healthy adults participating in the BrainHealth Project pilot study who had access to 12 weeks of online self-paced SMART and self-reported mental health symptoms on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) pre-and post-training. We utilized linear models to examine the change in self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress following the 12-week training period and to explore the influence of age, gender, and education on changes in symptomatology. Data from 44 participants who completed a follow-up DASS-21 6 months after completing SMART was used to explore the lasting impact of the training.Results: Improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were observed following online SMART, evidenced by a significant decrease in self-reported symptoms on the DASS-21. Improvement in self-reported mental health symptomatology was maintained or continued to improve 6-month post-training. No significant effect of gender was observed, but findings motivate additional exploration of the effects of education and age. Conclusion:Online SMART should be considered a low-cost, high-impact approach for supporting public mental health for generally healthy adults.

Exploring how brain health strategy training informs the future of work

“…Insel claims we are not in a mental illness crisis but rather in a crisis of mental health care . We agree with this viewpoint and add that the solutions are also cognitive ( Venza et al, 2016 ; Han et al, 2018 ; Chapman et al, 2021 ; Laane et al, 2022 ). We propose that capacity-building protocols may help to protect against and even intercept mental health issues by giving individuals the tools to be agents of change by drawing upon their internal resources.…”

“…In prior work, we have shown that participants, outside of aggregate settings such as workplace or group contexts, significantly improved their brain skills across multiple domains of intellect, wellbeing, social connectedness, and real-life responsibilities ( Chapman et al, 2015 ; Venza et al, 2016 ; Chapman et al, 2021 ; Laane et al, 2022 ). This work has led to development and testing of validated BrainHealth Index that can be used to evaluate improved brain health over time, regardless of intervention.…”

“…Our research over the past two decades has taken a capacity-building, proactive approach to evaluate whether promoting better brain health can avoid stigma and get ahead of problems before they become clinically significant rather than a sole focus on diagnosing and addressing problems. Prior work has shown that improved brain health can have a spill-over benefit to wellbeing and social connections ( Vas et al, 2016 ; Laane et al, 2022 ). We wanted to examine the impact of a workplace-wide program that focused on boosting brain health skills to benefit all individuals, instead of a subset with concerns.…”