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Mayo Clinic Trial Finds Smartwatch-AI Alerts Help Parents Shorten Severe Tantrums

Researchers see potential to support families between clinic visits given limited access to pediatric mental health care.

Overview

  • The randomized JAMA Network Open study enrolled 50 children ages 3 to 7 receiving Parent-Child Interaction Therapy over 16 weeks.
  • Parents who received AI-driven prompts responded in about four seconds and their children’s severe tantrums were roughly 11 minutes shorter than with standard therapy.
  • Children wore the smartwatch for about 75% of the study period, indicating acceptable engagement for home use.
  • The system streams heart rate, movement and sleep data from a child’s smartwatch to a parent’s smartphone app that analyzes signals in real time and issues alerts.
  • The work builds on earlier inpatient research showing 81% predictive accuracy and now requires larger, longer trials to refine performance and evaluate long-term benefits.