Back to School, Forward to Burnout: As College Services Fail to Support Students, Clinicians Recommend Tech Therapeutics

Back to school seasons brings anxiety and stress to many students

As the stressful back-to-college season is nearing, anxiety remains the number-one mental-health challenge among students. With on-campus services often difficult to reach, clinicians recommend evidence-based mental health apps and wearables as accessible and effective alternatives.

September 11, 2025. As students start or return to college, many experience mental health issues such as anxiety which lead to dropout. In the US alone, more than half don’t seek college-based mental health help, often because services are hard to find or perceived quality is insufficient.

Clinicians from Flow Neuroscience, the company behind a brain-stimulation device for depression treatment, explain why student-oriented support works best when available on demand, and urge young people to consider tech therapeutics this academic year.

“When under heavy workloads and stressed by new environments, students have limited capacity for emotional processing,” says Dr. Hannah Nearney, clinical psychiatrist and UK Medical Director at Flow Neuroscience.

“In such circumstances, anxiety can easily escalate, which if not addressed promptly, can lead to poorer performance and, thus even more distress at not meeting one’s usual academic standards. This creates a self-reinforcing negative cycle that can ultimately lead to burnout and poor mental health. Early access to support and treatment are vital to prevent this,” she adds.

Many students, however, struggle to receive timely assistance.

One reason is long queues: they can wait for up to several weeks for an appointment at campus mental health centers. Other widely reported problems are difficulty finding services and dissatisfaction with their quality.

In fact, according to recent survey, only 37% of students seek college-based mental health help. The Steve Fund’s study “Student Mental Health on Campus” also showcased that 40% say the services are difficult to find. Students mentioned the insufficient quality of the services and prior negative experiences with them as some of the main obstacles to seeking help.

New research supports more accessible, evidence-based mental health support option – technology-based therapeutics. These are digital platforms and apps that use data from smartphones and wearables to track and regulate stress in real-time.

For example, a clinical study published in May demonstrated that a mental health app, integrated with stress metrics derived from smartwatches, significantly reduced acute stress episodes in college students. Another trial found that a similar technology, but smartphone-embedded, could cut anxiety by roughly 38% among young adults and adolescents.

Beyond individual trials,

a major overview published by Springer Nature confirmed that digital and tech-based mental health interventions can successfully reduce anxiety among college students.

“Tech therapeutics use body signals from wearables, like heart rate or body temperature, to monitor and report anxiety spikes,” explains Dr. Kultar Singh Garcha, NHS General Practitioner and Global Medical Director at Flow Neuroscience. “Devices respond in real time, suggesting a mindfulness exercise, or a cognitive behavioral technique, helping to manage stress in the moment.”

While most tech-based solutions focus on mental health monitoring, the field is evolving toward assisting in active treatments, doctor adds.

“Just as fitness trackers reshaped how we manage physical health, tech tools are now transforming mental health care,” says Dr. Garcha. “Besides monitoring, they also enable treatment and prevention, with technologies that directly support the brain and the nervous system.”

The biggest portion of treatment-focused tech therapeutics currently belongs to brain stimulation therapies.

They include Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation,

Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), and other techniques. Many of the tDCS-based wearables, for example, are already CE-certified, and one by Flow Neuroscience is clinically used and prescribed by the NHS to treat depression.

Headsets that utilize this technology gently regulate brain activity by delivering small, painless electrical currents to specific brain areas associated with anxiety and stress.

“Tech is the future, including in mental health. We’re not going to run away from it, and our youth are among the first wide-adopters,” concluded Dr. Nearney. “It allows students to detect anxiety early and manage stress daily, on their time and pace. Such everyday steps will build a consistently healthy mental state, allowing both focused work and restorative downtime. I am sure that soon, we will witness much less dropouts – simply because such tech is now available.”

Flow Neuroscience is a healthcare company that focuses on tDCS therapies and devices. In 2016, it was co-founded in Sweden by Daniel Mansson, a clinical psychologist, and Erik Rehn, an engineer. Erin Lee joined as CEO in 2022, having previously worked at Google, Uber and Babylon, and the company is now based in the UK. Flow is the only at-home medical tDCS device with clinically proven effectiveness in treating depression. It is not only used by the National Health Service (NHS), but also available and has passed regulations in Europe, Norway, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.