We recently reported on smartphone app Mobilyze, a program under development that's capable of diagnosing mental health issues. A team of researchers at Harvard University are working on the logical next step: A smartphone app that can help treat mental health issues — in this case, social anxiety.

The app uses a simple approach developed by an Australian psychologist. Users of the app are shown two different faces on their phone screen: One friendly and one hostile. The program merges the faces together, and then flashes a letter that you need to correctly identify.

It's believed that those with social anxiety tend to fixate on faces in the crowd who are hostile. The app helps break this fixation, re-training the brain and reducing anxiety.

Recent studies show that using the new smartphone app helped reduce subjects' anxiety by 22 points on a questionnaire, as compared to an 8-point drop experienced by a group who didn't use the app. But before you start trading in your doctor for an iPhone, it's important to note that not everyone believes that the app is special: A similar 22-point drop was experienced by a control group who looked at pairs of faces without the letter to distract them.

It could just be that the key to feeling better is simply the act of taking the initiative and doing something about your anxiety. According to one Chicago-area control group participant in the study, "I felt good about myself, that I was doing something for my issues, and a lot happened in those two months outside the study that could have helped."

(Source)

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca: