Smartphone-based psychotherapeutic micro-interventions to improve mood in a real-world setting
Frontiers in Psychology October 4, 2016 Gunther Meinlschmidt, Jong-Hwan Lee, Esther Stalujanis et al.
Daily smartphone-based micro-interventions guided by short video-clips and based on psychotherapeutic techniques (viscerosensory attention, emotional imagery, facial expression, contemplative repetition) elicited short-term mood improvements in 27 men over 13 days. Mixed models showed better mood, increased wakefulness, and greater calmness from pre- to post-intervention. Improvements in good-bad mood from pre- to post-intervention were associated with overall mood change across the study period, but not for awake-tired or calm-nervous dimensions. The findings suggest these micro-interventions are a feasible complement to other psychotherapeutic approaches in real-world settings.