A new computer-based program designed to reduce an individual’s persistent bias toward negative thinking patterns has been found to lower depressive symptoms in teens with major depressive disorder (MDD), according to a new study at Hunan Normal University (HNU) in China.

According to psychcentral, approximately 11 percent of American adolescents suffer from MDD. These young people are five times more likely to attempt suicide than peers without mental illness. For these teens, significant help may come in the form of attention bias modification (ABM), a novel computer-based task designed to slowly shift one’s attention from sad to neutral to positive word associations.

For the study, a team of researchers looked at the short- and long-term effects of ABM tasks in 45 teens with MDD, selected from a school population.

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