Mobile Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Medical and Graduate Students

Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Depression; Anxiety Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: Supplemental MAYA App; Behavioral: Clinician Delivered CBT

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05823922

22-08025115

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study aims to assess and compare clinician-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) supplemented with "MAYA", a mobile cognitive behavioral therapy app program to clinician-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy alone. The experimental group will be asked to use the mobile application at least two times per week for six weeks, for at least 20 minutes on each of the two days in addition to the clinician-delivered CBT. Participants will complete a weekly self-report assessment battery designed to assess anxiety and mood symptoms. The investigators think that clinician-delivered CBT supplemented with "MAYA" will improve more effective at improving symptoms of anxiety and depression than clinician-delivered CBT alone.

Full description

Growing evidence suggests a need for anxiety and depression treatments that can be disseminated easily to young adults. Many do not seek out treatment for reasons including lack of availability and high cost. There is a growing need for accessible, affordable, research-supported treatments designed to increase the practice of skills and therefore improve treatment outcomes. Graduate students use mobile devices frequently; thus, mobile app-based interventions may be particularly appealing to individuals in this age range with anxiety or depression who are unable to access more traditional psychotherapy administered in person by a therapist.

The study aims to compare the efficacy and feasibility of clinician-delivered cognitive behavior therapy supplemented with the mobile app program to clinician- delivered cognitive behavioral therapy alone. Young adults with anxiety and/or depression will be randomized to clinician-delivered CBT (active control group) or to the clinician CBT + mobile app (intervention group). In the active control group, participants will participate in weekly clinician-delivered Cognitive Behavior Therapy. In the intervention group, participants will participate in weekly clinician-delivered Cognitive Behavior Therapy and use a mobile application for at least 20 minutes two times per week for six weeks.

Enrollment: 4 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age between 18 and 40 years.
• Clinically significant anxiety (as determined by a score of 10 or greater on the GAD-7) or clinically significant depression (as determined by a score of 10 or greater on the PHQ-9).
• Current graduate student at Weill Cornell Medicine.
• Access to an Apple iPhone

Exclusion criteria

• Lifetime diagnosis of a bipolar or psychotic disorder.
• Intent or plan to attempt suicide.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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4 participants in 2 patient groups

Clinician-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy only

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants receive treatment with a licensed clinician for 6 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Clinician Delivered CBT

Clinician-delivered CBT + Supplemental app

Experimental group

Description:

Mobile application at least two times per week for six weeks, for at least 20 minutes on each of the two days in addition to the clinician-delivered CBT

Treatment:

Behavioral: Clinician Delivered CBT

Behavioral: Supplemental MAYA App