- Email: [email protected]
Therapist in my pocket
Technology
ONE PER CENT
Therapist in my pocket Smartphones can help you track your mood, says Aviva Rutkin
trureach
watching these, users practise what they have learned by jotting down their thoughts in a digital journal. The app will be tested at Royal Ottawa hospital in Canada and in trials with students at a nearby university. TruReach Health was created by Jeff Perron, a clinical psychology graduate at the University of Ottawa. He says the app isn’t meant to replace face-to-face therapy, but to provide a substitute for those who don’t have access to it – whether for fear of social stigma or simply the expense. “I love psychologists. If everyone could go and see one, then we’d all be better off, but that’s just not possible,” says Perron. “We’re giving someone a tool because, 99 times out of 100, they just don’t have access to face-to-face therapy.” Digital therapy may not be as outlandish as it sounds. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends certain cognitive behavioural therapy programs for people with mild depression or anxiety. Artificial intelligence could be involved too. In May, Talkspace teamed up with the engineers behind IBM’s Watson system to find ways to utilise the wealth of message data they have generated since launching in 2012. The team hopes to build an algorithm to match new users to the therapist who would suit them best. Talkspace is also collaborating on an even more ambitious project: a kind of crowdsourced therapist. This program would look at what a person receiving therapy types into the system, comb through Talkspace’s archives and then present the therapist with a suggested response. “If it can be done, it will be –How are you feeling today?– amazing,” says Frank. n
20 | NewScientist | 12 September 2015
Zap to stop puking A brain zap could stop motion sickness. A team at Imperial College London put volunteers in a special chair designed to make anyone motion sick within minutes. Half wore a cap that applied an electric current to dampen responses in the brain area that deals with balance. They lasted much longer than the others before feeling sick (Neurology, doi.org/10/7hm).
“The app was conceived to help the business of reading, not to make the reader go ‘wow’” Ian Pears on his new novel Arcadia which is designed to be read on an app. The app helps readers navigate the novel’s complex structure and lets them choose what order to read it in.
Starfish killer It’s payback time. A robot with a lethal injection will seek and destroy the crown of thorns starfish that eat coral on the Great Barrier Reef. A team at the University of Technology Sydney used photos and video to train their robot to recognise the starfish. It has completed its first swim and will be tested on the reef later this month.
David Gee / Alamy Stock Photo
LIE down anywhere that suits: next few hours, for a weekly fee. the world is now your therapist’s More than 150,000 people have couch. People with problems used Talkspace so far, says cosuch as anxiety or mood swings founder Oren Frank. For nearly are turning to smartphone half of them, it’s their first brush apps for advice. with therapy. “Therapy becomes a According to the US National daily experience, much more in Alliance on Medical Illness, tune with what happens to you on 59 per cent of adults in the US with a daily basis,” he says. a mental health condition have “People can anonymously not received relevant services in the past year. Smartphones could text a therapist and receive a response within help make these services more the next few hours” accessible and affordable. One app with this aim is PTSD Coach, which lets people This week, another app in this discreetly screen themselves and vein debuts. TruReach Health learn more about the disorder. offers free lessons in cognitive Another is Moodnotes, which behavioural therapy, a treatment keeps track of emotional swings that teaches people to recognise and offers new perspectives on and alter negative patterns in situations. And on Talkspace users their thoughts or behaviours. can anonymously text a therapist The lessons are given in short and receive a response within the animated videos and between
ONE PER CENT
Therapist in my pocket Smartphones can help you track your mood, says Aviva Rutkin
trureach
watching these, users practise what they have learned by jotting down their thoughts in a digital journal. The app will be tested at Royal Ottawa hospital in Canada and in trials with students at a nearby university. TruReach Health was created by Jeff Perron, a clinical psychology graduate at the University of Ottawa. He says the app isn’t meant to replace face-to-face therapy, but to provide a substitute for those who don’t have access to it – whether for fear of social stigma or simply the expense. “I love psychologists. If everyone could go and see one, then we’d all be better off, but that’s just not possible,” says Perron. “We’re giving someone a tool because, 99 times out of 100, they just don’t have access to face-to-face therapy.” Digital therapy may not be as outlandish as it sounds. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends certain cognitive behavioural therapy programs for people with mild depression or anxiety. Artificial intelligence could be involved too. In May, Talkspace teamed up with the engineers behind IBM’s Watson system to find ways to utilise the wealth of message data they have generated since launching in 2012. The team hopes to build an algorithm to match new users to the therapist who would suit them best. Talkspace is also collaborating on an even more ambitious project: a kind of crowdsourced therapist. This program would look at what a person receiving therapy types into the system, comb through Talkspace’s archives and then present the therapist with a suggested response. “If it can be done, it will be –How are you feeling today?– amazing,” says Frank. n
20 | NewScientist | 12 September 2015
Zap to stop puking A brain zap could stop motion sickness. A team at Imperial College London put volunteers in a special chair designed to make anyone motion sick within minutes. Half wore a cap that applied an electric current to dampen responses in the brain area that deals with balance. They lasted much longer than the others before feeling sick (Neurology, doi.org/10/7hm).
“The app was conceived to help the business of reading, not to make the reader go ‘wow’” Ian Pears on his new novel Arcadia which is designed to be read on an app. The app helps readers navigate the novel’s complex structure and lets them choose what order to read it in.
Starfish killer It’s payback time. A robot with a lethal injection will seek and destroy the crown of thorns starfish that eat coral on the Great Barrier Reef. A team at the University of Technology Sydney used photos and video to train their robot to recognise the starfish. It has completed its first swim and will be tested on the reef later this month.
David Gee / Alamy Stock Photo
LIE down anywhere that suits: next few hours, for a weekly fee. the world is now your therapist’s More than 150,000 people have couch. People with problems used Talkspace so far, says cosuch as anxiety or mood swings founder Oren Frank. For nearly are turning to smartphone half of them, it’s their first brush apps for advice. with therapy. “Therapy becomes a According to the US National daily experience, much more in Alliance on Medical Illness, tune with what happens to you on 59 per cent of adults in the US with a daily basis,” he says. a mental health condition have “People can anonymously not received relevant services in the past year. Smartphones could text a therapist and receive a response within help make these services more the next few hours” accessible and affordable. One app with this aim is PTSD Coach, which lets people This week, another app in this discreetly screen themselves and vein debuts. TruReach Health learn more about the disorder. offers free lessons in cognitive Another is Moodnotes, which behavioural therapy, a treatment keeps track of emotional swings that teaches people to recognise and offers new perspectives on and alter negative patterns in situations. And on Talkspace users their thoughts or behaviours. can anonymously text a therapist The lessons are given in short and receive a response within the animated videos and between