Smartphones Aggravating Anxiety Symptoms

Smartphones Aggravating Anxiety Symptoms: Experimental Study From Southeastern

The goal of this study is to assess if excessive use of smartphone apps of social media can impact a person's mental health. The study is aimed at improving the usage of smartphones which might help improve the mental health of patients. The goal is not to discourage the use of smartphones but instead to utilize smartphones in a way that they do not impact lives.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: General decrease in smartphone use; Behavioral: Avoiding Social Media Apps

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 100
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Minnesota
    • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
      • Mayo Clinic Minnesota

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• For patients aged 18 years or older experiencing mild symptoms of anxiety or depression and who have a GAD-7 score 5 and above.
• Patient should have smart phone and should be using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and Pinterest social media apps.
• Patients should have email access.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any patient who uses a smartphone for tracking glucose for diabetes management, heart rate, or any chronic illness which is being managed through a smartphone app.
• Any patient who uses more than one personal smartphone
• Any patient who is a suicide risk as per PHQ-9 score, current recreational drug usage, or alcohol abuse.
• Any patient who has suicidal ideation as per PHQ-9 assessment before or during the study period will be excluded, (all patients will be monitored for suicidal ideation by PHQ-9 scoring method at day 1, week 6, and week 12, but it is the responsibility of the patient to inform the study team if they have developed any suicidal ideation throughout the study period).
• Patients with activated POA (Power of Attorney - Healthcare), diagnosis of mental retardation or current disability due to any psychiatric disorder or severe depression with a high risk of suicide should be excluded.
• Any patient currently undergoing ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) for severe depression.
• Any patient taking prescribed SSRIs/SNRIs, with a change and not taking them continuously in last 30 days (not a new diagnosis of anxiety). If change they will be excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: General decrease in smartphone use.; Subjects will limit their time on smartphone.	Behavioral: General decrease in smartphone use; Subjects will decrease their time on smartphone in general.
Experimental: Avoid certain social media apps; Subjects will limit time on smartphone, in particular avoiding use of social media apps on the smartphone which includes Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Pinterest.	Behavioral: Avoiding Social Media Apps; Subjects will avoid use of social media apps on the smartphone which includes Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Pinterest.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in anxiety	Measured using the General Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD 7) scale to assess severity of generalized anxiety disorder. Scoring is calculated by assigning scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3 to the response categories, respectively, of "not at all," "several days," "more than half the days," and "nearly every day." Total score for the seven items ranges from 0 to 21 where 0 is no anxiety, 1-4 is minimal anxiety, 5-9 is mild anxiety, 10-14 is moderate anxiety, and 15-21 is severe anxiety.	Day 1, 12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in depression	Measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9) scale used to assess severity of depression. Scoring is calculated by assigning scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3 to the response categories, respectively, of "not at all," "several days," "more than half the days," and "nearly every day." Total score for the seven items ranges from 0 to 27 where 0 is no depression, 1-4 is minimal depression, 5-9 is mild depression, 10-14 is moderate depression, and 15-19 is moderately severe depression and 20-27 severe depression.	Day 1, 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Mayo Clinic
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Gagandeep Singh, MD, Mayo Clinic

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 8, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 7, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 7, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): April 11, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): January 14, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 13, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Smartphones
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 23-003633

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No