New online therapy tool can reduce anxiety among pregnant women

A team of psychologists, clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience of anxiety in pregnancy have created a web therapy tool aimed at reducing worry and repetitive negative thinking during pregnancy. Christin Klose/dpa A new online therapy tool could help prevent anxiety from escalating among pregnant women, a study suggests.

Anxiety is common in pregnancy, with around one in five women estimated to experience it while pregnant or in the year after giving birth. Medics wanted to develop a new tool to ease anxiety "while it is still manageable". Researchers said the tool has the "potential to improve maternal mental health", and by developing an online tool they could "reach a large number of people".

A team of psychologists, clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience of anxiety in pregnancy created the tool called Relax – or Reducing Levels of Anxiety. The web-based tool targets worry and repetitive negative thinking. It offers 12 online sessions which involve listening to 30 scenarios including everyday ambiguous situations that could be resolved in either a positive or neutral manner or a negative manner.

The tool helps people make more positive interpretations of the scenarios. It has previously been found to help people with repetitive negative thinking and anxiety, but the team of researchers wanted to assess whether this could also help pregnant women. Academics led by experts at King's College London tested Relax on pregnant women with, or at increased risk, of anxiety who used the tool alongside usual maternity care.

Some 268 women with an average age of 34 were involved in the study with half being given Relax and usual care while the others just received usual care. Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, the research team reported hat anxiety was significantly lower for those who did the therapy sessions.

This was measured using a common questionnaire to examine anxiety, with those taking part in therapy having measurably lower scores compared to those who did not. They also found that depression, repetitive negative thinking and worry all also appeared to be lower among the group who took part in the therapy sessions.

The effects on anxiety, depression and repetitive negative thinking were "sustained" when the women were measured again some 12 to 24 weeks after giving birth, according to the study which was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The authors said that for women who took part in the Relax sessions "anxiety was lower during pregnancy and postnatally" adding: "Integrating Relax into maternity care for those at risk of increased anxiety has potential to improve maternal mental health." Lead researcher on the study, Colette Hirsch, professor in cognitive clinical psychology at King's College London and deputy theme lead for digital therapies at NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Maudsley, said: "Our digital therapy aims to address the symptom of repetitive negative thinking where people constantly consider the negative outcome of situations, and which has been shown to predict and maintain anxiety.

"This is the first study to show that a digital therapy addressing this type of thinking prevents the increase of anxiety during pregnancy. "Integrating Relax into maternity care for those with, or at risk of increasing anxiety has the potential to improve maternal mental health and by taking a digital approach we can reach a large number of people." Prof Hirsch added: "Pregnancy can be such a cherished and critical time, but it is also a time when everyday situations can cause worry and anxiety.

"As a digital therapy that can be used by pregnant and birthing people in their own homes, Relax has the potential to prevent this anxiety escalating when it is still manageable."