Using a mindfulness app to improve anxiety and sleep quality in GAD.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study of effects of a mindfulness app in improving anxiety and sleep in patients with generalised anxiety disorders.
IRAS ID
184607
Contact name
Sophie Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 18 days
Research summary
The research question for this study is ‘What effects does increasing mindfulness via a smartphone application have on levels of anxiety and sleep quality in patients with Generalised Anxiety Disorder?’. This is important because smartphone applications are readily available and relatively cheap, so if effective, could be a useful adjunct to current anxiety treatment. Eligible participants are patients with experience of GAD, with no other psychological co-morbidities. The participants will attend 3 short meetings (30-40 minutes each) in which they will complete attention networking tasks (ANT) and a questionnaire about their levels of anxiety and sleep quality, including space for qualitative answers as well as quantitative answers. The questionnaire will include questions relating to anxiety from the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the state trait anxiety questionnaire and Anxiety Sensitivity Index. The questions about sleep will include the Pittsburgh sleep quality index. The participants will then either use the mindfulness smartphone application ('headspace') or the active control (web browsing) for 10 minutes every day for 20 days. They will be invited to meetings to complete the questionnaire and ANT on days 0, 11 and 21. Their results will be analysed by T-test.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0772
Date of REC Opinion
9 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion