Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Strategies (SMART) brain health training program has been shown to improve symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress when delivered in person. New research from Center UT Dallas’ BrainHealth demonstrates the effectiveness of online delivery of SMART.
SMART training enhanced the brain’s frontal lobe network and achieve significant, measurable brain changes and improved strategies.This brain health training program promoted improvements in both trained and untrained domains of cognitive function, including strategic attention, innovation, working memory, and Executive Function Behavior in Real Life. In addition to improving cognitive function, SMART has shown unexpected benefits in mental health indicators. study, “Effects of Online Brain Training on Self-Reported Mental Health Symptoms in Generally Healthy Adults Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published in Brain and Behavior.
This study examined a 12-week, self-paced Effects of online SMART mental health training on 145 participants aged 18-78. Participants included 106 women and 39 men.
Participants self-reported mental health symptoms on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), an instrument that measures depression, anxiety, and stress/ Negative emotional states such as stress. Although the participants consisted of healthy adults, some reported symptoms of psychological distress during the baseline pre-training of the DASS-21, especially in younger age groups.
Improvements in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress observed after online SMART, self-significant declines demonstrated – on DASS-21 reported symptoms. Although While SMART training is generally beneficial for mental health across age, gender, and education levels, further exploration of how age and education affect the expression of symptom subtypes is needed.
Data from 44 participants who completed a follow-up DASS revealed the lasting impact of this training – 21 in Six months after initial training, it was shown that improvements in self-reported mental health symptoms were maintained or continued to expand after training. These findings suggest that SMART may be an effective tool for helping those with preclinical mental health symptoms, especially depression and stress.
Lead author Sarah Laane, MS, CCC-SLP, research clinician and doctoral student at the Center for Brain Health, Pointing out these findings suggest that participants who completed online SMART experienced similar mental health benefits to participants previously demonstrated after a face-to-face SMART program, and suggest support for the use of online SMART as a potentially low-cost, high-impact tool to support mental health.
Further information:
Sarah A. Laane et al., Online Brain Training on Self-Reported Mental Health Symptoms in Generally Healthy Adults During the Covid-19 Pandemic Impact, Brain and Behavior (2022). DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2853
closed Provide Brain Health Center
Citation
: Study Shows Positive Effects of Online Brain Training (2023, Feb 3), retrieved Feb 22, 2023 from https:/ /medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-positive-impact-online-brain.html
This Documentation is protected by copyright. Except for any fair dealing for private study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is for reference only.
