Symposia
Transdiagnostic
Emily E. Bernstein, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Somerville, Massachusetts
Emma C. Wolfe, PhD
Clinical Research Coordinator
Massachusetts General Hospital
Somerville, Massachusetts
Brynn Huguenel, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital
Salem, Massachusetts
Sabine Wilhelm, Ph.D.
Professor, Chief of Psychology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Physical activity has known and broad health benefits, including anti-depressive and anxiolytic effects. Yet, only about half of Americans meet even the minimum exercise recommendations. Individuals with anxiety, depression, and related conditions are even less likely to do so. With the advent of wearable sensors and smartphones, experts quickly noted the utility of technology for enhanced measurement and intervention of physical activity. Technology-driven interventions may uniquely (or at least more strongly than traditional treatments) engage key mechanisms of behavior change, such as self-awareness. As people tend to keep devices close to them throughout their daily lives, wearable and mobile platforms can provide objective, continuous monitoring as well as real-time notifications and tools to both interrupt problematic habits and to encourage more adaptive behaviors. Additionally, these approaches can enhance a person’s likelihood of changing their behavior by lowering the cognitive burden involved in initiating physical activity; strategies include delivering content more flexibly (e.g., when it is most convenient for a participant to engage or in doses of their choosing) or tailoring in-the-moment activity suggestions to a person’s present context.
This presentation would first provide an overview of these technologies and treatment protocols and their performance in non-psychiatric populations. Second, it would present an in-depth qualitative and quantitative review of (a) how these approaches have (or, largely have not) been tailored to individuals with depression, anxiety, or related concerns, (b) how these approaches are designed to target specific mechanisms of behavior change, and (c) early effectiveness data for reducing emotional symptoms. For example, the few instances of tailoring tend to include adding a psychoeducation module (e.g., the relationship between depression and exercise) or offering a separate psychosocial treatment in parallel (e.g., stress management group). Still, early data for reducing psychological symptoms are encouraging. Overall, however, surprisingly few studies have examined mental health as a primary outcome, most of which target depressive symptoms in the context of treating a medical comorbidity (e.g. diabetes, HIV). To conclude, we would outline specific recommendations for future research and treatment development in this area, which remains open and still promising for flexible, highly scalable support.