Learning Effective New Strategies (LENS)
Over half a million people in the UK suffer from anxiety and depression each year, and rates are increasing. Anxiety and depression are among the top ten causes of years lost to disability worldwide, representing a trillion-dollar loss to the global economy every year. More accessible, effective interventions which target the key mechanisms that maintain anxiety and depression are urgently needed.
LENS (Learning Effective New Strategies) is a digital therapy, developed and researched at King’s College London with support from MQ Mental Health Research and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, which has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression. It does so by training the brain and transforming key thinking habits that maintain anxiety. This allows people to naturally react more effectively to stress. Rather than having to consciously try to apply a new strategy, people who have received LENS training simply process uncertainty more positively, breaking the vicious cycle that fuels anxiety and depression.
LENS is accessible through an online platform without the need for interaction with a doctor or therapist making it highly scalable. It can provide a valuable alternative to people who are not able to or are not interested in undertaking talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
At present, LENS has been successfully adapted for different populations, targeting anxiety in people with Parkinson's, promoting resilience in cancer survivors and trainee teachers, and reducing distress in people with long-term physical health conditions such as multiple sclerosis. Parallel to this work, researchers are also collaborating with 3B Impact with funding from the One King's Impact Fund, to explore ways to rollout LENS in commercial, public, social enterprise and charitable sectors and make it more accessible in the real world.
Aims
As with all interventions, people vary in the degree that they benefit from LENS. As part of a larger research study into predictors of psychological treatment outcomes (e.g. age, genetics etc), this project aims to identify which factors predict positive outcomes following LENS training for people experiencing symptoms of anxiety.
Methods
Participants will be representative of different ethnic identities in the UK. They will complete a series of short training sessions on a purpose-built app. The sessions involve listening to descriptions of uncertain everyday situations, imagining how these may turn out, and answering some questions about them.
After completion of the sessions, participants will be contacted at different times over the next six months to assess their ongoing levels of anxiety.
The data from this project will help to establish genetic factors related to thinking habits (cognitive processes) and anxiety following psychological treatment. This will then provide insight into who benefits the most from LENS and contribute to prediction of treatment outcome for other anxiety interventions.
This study is funded by a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award.
Principal Investigators
Professor of Developmental Behavioural Genetics
Professor in Cognitive Clinical Psychology
Professor of Psychiatric Genetics
Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics, Biostatistics & Health Informatics