Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 29, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 3, 2018 - Aug 28, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 9, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Can Brief, Daily Training Using a Mobile App Help Change Maladaptive Beliefs? Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial
Background:
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling condition with a wide variety of clinical presentations including contamination fears, fear of harm, and relationship-related obsessions. Cognitive behavioral models of OCD suggest that OC symptoms result from catastrophic misinterpretations of commonly occurring intrusive experiences and associated dysfunctional strategies used to manage them. OCD-related maladaptive beliefs including inflated responsibility, importance and control of thoughts, perfectionism, and intolerance for uncertainty increase the likelihood of such misinterpretations.
Objective:
Considering accumulating evidence suggesting that mobile health (mHealth) apps based on cognitive-behavioral principles may lead to significant reductions in psychopathological symptoms, we assessed the effectiveness of a novel cognitive training app (GGRO) designed to challenge OCD-related beliefs.
Methods:
A total of 97 students were randomized to groups undertaking immediate-use (iApp) or delayed use (dApp) of GGRO. All participants were requested to complete Web-based assessments, with questionnaires relating to maladaptive beliefs, mood, and OC symptoms at baseline (T1), 15 days from baseline (T2), and 30 days from baseline (T3). Participants in iApp group started using the app at baseline and continued using the app for 15 consecutive days. They were then requested to stop using the app until T3. Participants in the dApp group were requested to wait for 15 days and only then start using the app (crossover) for 15 consecutive days.
Results:
All participants used the app for a mean of 14.07 (SD 1.41) days with 2.94 levels per day. Consistent with previous findings, app use was associated with medium-large effect size reductions in both iApp (n=51) and dApp (n=46) groups. In the iApp group, all effects remained significant during the 15 days of follow-up. Analyses focusing on the first two assessment occasions revealed significant treatment × repeated measures interactions on maladaptive beliefs, several OC symptom measures, and self-esteem.
Conclusions:
This study provides further evidence for the efficacy of GGRO as a mobile-delivered training exercise that is useful for reducing OCD-related beliefs and symptoms.
ClinicalTrial:
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03571464; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03571464 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/7675sYPsH)
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.