Decreased anxiety through haptic technology patch usage: A case-control comparison

Chronic anxiety affects one-third of US adults and has increased by 6% from 2023 to 2024. Medical management is typically psychopharmacology utilizing antidepressants and/or anxiolytics and psychotherapy, but these are not always successful as treatments. Nonadherence or noncompliance to prescribed drugs for mental health disorders is common, and benzodiazepines as an anxiolytic class are also recognized as especially subject to misuse.

This single blinded, case-control study tested the use of a potential alternative or adjunctive treatment for anxiety of a Haptic Vibrotactile Technology patch.

There were 102 adults enrolled in the study. 65 were assigned to the treatment group (TG) and 37 to the control group (CG). The TG gender ratio was 49 females/16 males; the CG gender ratio was 23 females/14 males. Two types of validated surveys were utilized, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Short Form-20 (SF-20), and these two scaled surveys were administered at the three study intervals of Baseline, Day 7, and Day 14.

The numerically coded quantitative data collected were analyzed using SPSS software. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests and a two-tailed alpha level of 0.05 was used for all statistical comparisons.

At Day 14, there was a 31.3% difference between TG and CG for the PSS, showing marked positive effect for the TG patients as compared to the CG patients. The mean PSS score for TG patients decreased by 33%, showing a significant reduction in emotional/mental stress. For the SF-20, a positive change in the TG was shown, with a 23.8% increase in the percent score for the survey's Mental Health domain and a notable increase for the Health Perception domain. At Day 14, >90% of the TG reported satisfaction with the patch; 90% indicated that they would recommend it. In contrast, there was little change in all PSS and SF-20 scores from baseline to Day 14 for the CG; 97.3% of the CG were not at all satisfied with the patch (which was a placebo), and only 3% reported they would recommend it.

The overall findings of this clinical trial revealed that the studied patch (PEACE Patch with vibrotactile trigger technology [VTT]; Super Patch Company, Srysty Holding Co, Toronto, Canada) was effective in reducing anxiety symptoms. Gaining a better understanding of how the brain interacts with external stimuli, such as through VTT, may lead to the development of more viable, safe, and effective "drug-free" treatment options, which can provide adults living with chronic anxiety more potential options for relieving their symptoms and acquiring a better overall quality of life. The VTT patch utilized in this study appears to be effective in reducing anxiety symptoms and so may present an alternative or adjunct treatment modality for chronic anxiety. Further research is needed to determine if the results found in our study differ depending upon the specific adult age demographic studied, such as effectiveness in the younger, middle-aged, and senior-aged adult population, rather than across the entire adult age group spectrum, and also in adults with poststroke or post-traumatic brain injury or living with various neurodegenerative disorders.