Tech to take the stress out of stress
Stress and anxiety stop us functioning as we should - instead of medication, what if a simple smartphone app could banish the "Blue Meanies" forever?
Mairin Philips (not her real name) suffered from anxiety, so much so that it made the pain from a stomach ulcer far worse.
Then a friend suggested a handheld anti-anxiety device."I was keen to give it a try, but was not convinced it would be of benefit to me," she says.
The biosensor device, called Pip, is gripped between the thumb and forefinger, looks a bit like a small iPod, and measures sweat and electrodermal activity associated with stress levels.
People working to manage their anxiety can then play a number of games like Relax & Race, where relaxing confers a competitive advantage.
"After a couple of days," says Miss Philips, "I had stopped taking relaxing medication, which I had been relying on due to anxiety.
"This was a surprise to me. It was a great tool for helping to slow down your body and mind, a great substitution for relaxing medicine."
The Pip is a biosensor that communicates with a smartphone app
Pip is among a batch of new stress-management gadgets. It is produced by a Dublin start-up called Galvanic, with Trinity College Dublin psychology professor Ian Robertson as chair of its scientific advisory board.
The device, which connects by Bluetooth with smart devices, was originally researched and patented in 2007, but the company did not survive Ireland's downturn.
Mindfulness goes digital
Some 10.4 million days are lost annually to work-related stress in the UK, according to the Health and Safety Executive.
The World Health Organization says it costs businesses in the US $300bn (£187bn; €237bn) a year.
Mindfulness - meditation practices found to have an impact on anxiety, by focusing on the present moment - is newly in vogue, with an all-party parliamentary group last month recommending all new NHS medical and teaching staff be given training in it.
A higher-tech take on mindfulness, Pip is designed for users to pick up and make an effort at managing their stress, through instant biofeedback to learn what techniques work best, says Galvanic's chief executive David Ingram.
Another approach is wearable technology - such as Insight, part of the redLoop project and designed at Middlesex University.
The Insight kit bag - using wearable technology rather than handheld sensors
Project director Dr Andy Bardill says, "[Anxiety has] various different parameters to it, some of which are measurable and can be indicated by reliable biomarkers, while others are more qualitative, more patient dependent."
Skin conductivity - tied to how much you sweat - is a biomarker of stress, part of the fight-or-flight response, but also goes down when there is high humidity, or up when you go up stairs.
"Getting baseline data is important: it could be it's gone down because you've done exercise or you're unwell, not because you're anxious,' says Dr Bardill.
Insight features wristbands, heartbeat monitors, and an iPhone app. With a log of when and where every heartbeat of a person takes place, Dr Bardill says analysing the data requires "episodic analysis, essentially data analytics used in the intelligence community".
Another wearable device, designed in Canada, is a headband called Muse.
"It's clinical grade EEG (electroencephalography, recording brain electrical activity) in this slim, sleek little consumer form factor," says Ariel Garten, a psychotherapist and chief executive of InteraXon, which developed the device.
With it, a person can track their brain activity in real time on a smartphone or tablet, and practise focused attention.
"It's like mindfulness on hyperdrive," she says.
The company behind the Muse headband claims the device can measure brain activity, to help you focus
Stress tech has been bolstered by the ready availability of smart devices, to which devices like Pip, Insight and Muse can connect by Bluetooth.
A different approach invokes another recent trend, social networking.
Jennifer Hyatt founded Big White Wall, an anonymous social network to support people in managing mental health. Half its members use the site to relieve anxiety.
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