Mobile applications are increasingly part of mental health programs and various apps have been developed for treating anxiety disorders. Typically, they aim to improve anxiety symptoms via established CBT techniques, such as exposure principles, which are considered extremely unpleasant for fearful individuals. We combined in a mobile application exposure principles with gamification elements (e.g. narrative background, level progression, points, and feedback). These elements should increase the motivation for confronting spider images and decrease the experienced distress. To evaluate the application, two groups of spider-fearful individuals played either the Spider App (experimental group) or a non-spider associated app (control group) twice a day for approximately 12 min for 7 days. After this week, participants of the experimental group showed less avoidance behavior of spiders (BAT), as well as lower anxiety of spiders (SPQ, FAS). Groups were not different in measures of depression or psychological distress. Interestingly, participants playing the Spider App reported higher anxiety, disgust and arousal ratings shortly after playing the app. However, anxiety, disgust, and arousal ratings decreased from day to day. We discuss our findings with respect to implications for the clinical practice.

移动应用程序越来越多地成为心理健康计划的一部分，并且已经开发了用于治疗焦虑症的各种应用程序。通常，他们的目标是通过已建立的CBT技术（例如接触原理）改善焦虑症状，这些技术被认为对恐惧的个人非常不愉快。我们将移动应用程序的曝光原理与游戏化元素（例如，叙述背景，级别发展，得分和反馈）结合在一起。这些元素应增加面对蜘蛛图像的动机并减少经历的困扰。为了评估该应用程序，两组恐惧蜘蛛的人每天两次玩蜘蛛应用程序（实验组）或与非蜘蛛相关的应用程序（对照组），历时约12分钟，共7天。这周之后 实验组的参与者表现出较少的蜘蛛回避行为（BAT），以及较低的蜘蛛焦虑感（SPQ，FAS）。两组在抑郁或心理困扰的测量方法上没有差异。有趣的是，玩Spider App的参与者在玩App之后不久就报告了更高的焦虑，厌恶和唤醒等级。但是，焦虑，厌恶和唤醒的评分每天都在下降。我们讨论有关临床实践意义的发现。并且唤醒评分每天都在下降。我们讨论有关临床实践意义的发现。并且唤醒评分每天都在下降。我们讨论有关临床实践意义的发现。