ABSTRACT

Despite an explosion of mobile app offerings for management of pain and anxiety, the evidence for effectiveness is scarce. Placebo-controlled trials are the most desirable but designing inactive placebo apps can be challenging. For a prospective randomized clinical trial with 72 patients in a craniofacial pain center, we created an app with self-hypnotic relaxation (SHR) for use with iOS and Android systems. A placebo background audio (BA) app was built with the same look and functionality. Both iOS and Android SHR apps alone and in comparison to the BA group significantly reduced pain and anxiety during the waiting-room time. The Android BA app significantly reduced anxiety but not pain. The iOS BA app affected neither pain nor anxiety, functioning as an ideal placebo. Usage analysis revealed that different default approaches of the iOS and Android devices accounted for the difference in results.

摘要

尽管用于管理疼痛和焦虑的移动应用程序呈爆炸式增长，但有效性的证据却很少。安慰剂对照试验是最理想的，但设计非活性安慰剂应用程序可能具有挑战性。对于颅面疼痛中心 72 名患者的前瞻性随机临床试验，我们创建了一款具有自我催眠放松 (SHR) 功能的应用程序，可用于 iOS 和 Android 系统。构建了具有相同外观和功能的安慰剂背景音频 (BA) 应用程序。单独使用 iOS 和 Android SHR 应用程序以及与 BA 组相比，都显着减少了候诊室期间的疼痛和焦虑。Android BA 应用程序显着减少了焦虑，但没有减轻疼痛。iOS BA 应用程序既不影响疼痛也不影响焦虑，是一种理想的安慰剂。