App found to reduce insomnia, depression

Cheng Wong

An insomnia-intervention app can significantly reduce the incidence of depression in youth with the disorder by more than 40 percent, according to groundbreaking clinical research from Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University.

The top-tier institutions announced that the Digital CBT-I Intervention App, developed by the Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit at CUHK, has shown remarkable effectiveness in improving insomnia and depressive symptoms in young people.

The breakthrough app could be a highly significant self-help tool for youth worldwide, with depression being a prevalent mental disorder affecting about 1.2 billion youngsters globally. The World Health Organization estimates that it impacts around 3.5 percent of youths aged 15 to 19, with rates in Hong Kong ranging from 3.9 to 5.2 percent.

Lu Lin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of PKU Sixth Hospital, said no research had been conducted in Asia on the effectiveness of this therapy. But to address this gap, a study was conducted between September 2019 and November 2022. It involved 708 participants from Hong Kong and the mainland, aged 15 to 25, who were experiencing insomnia and subclinical depressive symptoms.

The intervention group experienced a nearly 60 percent remission rate for insomnia disorders at the one-year follow-up, demonstrating a 42 percent lower incidence of depression compared to the control group.

No adverse events were reported.

Chen Si-jing, first author of the research and a postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Psychiatry at CUHK, said: "The study demonstrates that digital CBT-I is effective in preventing the future onset of major depression with satisfactory efficacy."

Wing Yun-kwok, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at CU Medicine and director of the Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit, indicated that future studies will focus on integrating digital insomnia intervention into clinical practice.