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Related: Watch the Motherboard documentary about using virtual reality to treat PTSD
Produced in collaboration between game developer Ustwo and the two clinical psychologists behind Thriveport LLC, Moodnotes draws on CBT and "positive psychology" approaches to help users track their moods, identify and challenge negative "thinking traps," and develop techniques for re-evaluating and modifying their thinking."We are already seeing that some people use it every day to log their mood. Some people just use it when they encounter a stressful situation at work, to unstick their thinking. Then we're also seeing people who use it to discover what makes them more content in life," Wood explains.Another app, Sleepio, was co-developed by Professor Colin Espie, one of the UK's leading sleep experts, as a CBT-based tool to tackle insomnia. "Self-help is the first port of call for most people, so apps make information, education, and indeed therapy much more readily available," he says. "The dynamics of an app allows for interaction, so it can be engaging and supportive, to assist people with behavior change, but not intrusive or dominating."
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Of course, the key challenges with any app are both understanding what it can and can't do for you, and knowing which apps are actually worth your time and money, and which could end up doing more harm than good. "You can't replace human contact, and the more cynical driver of [mental health apps] is obviously cost saving in healthcare," says Gibson."In something like mental health, where we know isolation is really bad for people's minds, it would be counterproductive to try and replace people with an app—there's still much need for nurses and peer group support. For me, it's important that apps shouldn't be used as an excuse for continuing to keep mental health services underfunded."For Dr. Edrick Dorian, one of the clinical psychologists who makes up Thriveport, the organization behind MoodKit and Moodnotes, the potential for digital mental health tools is much more about augmenting existing therapeutic services."It's foolhardy for anyone to expect an app to replicate what can be done with a live professional in the room; you can't discuss any of the nuances, and of course you miss the interpersonal aspect and the feedback of a trained professional," he says.
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