Investigating stand-alone therapist-supported digital mental health intervention vs augmented treatment as usual
Year: 2022
Type: preprint
Abstract: Objective: Smartphone-based digital mental health interventions (DMHI) have been described as a purported solution to meet growing mental healthcare demands and lack of providers, but studies often don’t account for whether patients are concurrently in another treatment modality. Methods: This preregistered quasi-experimental intent-to-treat study with 354 patients enrolled in a therapist-supported DMHI examined the treatment effectiveness of the Meru Health Program (MHP) as a stand-alone treatment as compared to the MHP as an augmented treatment to any other form of treatment, including 1) in-person therapy, 2) psychotropic medication use, and 3) in-person therapy and psychotropic medication use.Results: Patients with higher baseline depressive and anxiety symptoms were more likely to self-select into multiple forms of treatment, an effect driven by patients in the MHP as adjunctive treatment to in-person therapy and psychotropic medication. Patients in combined treatments had significantly higher depressive and anxiety symptoms across treatment, but all treatment groups had similar decreasing depressive and anxiety symptom trajectories. Exploratory analyses revealed differential treatment outcomes across treatment combinations. Patients in the MHP in combination with another treatment had higher rates of major depressive episodes, psychiatric hospitalization, and attempted death by suicide at baseline.Conclusions: Patients with higher depressive and anxiety symptoms tend to self-select into using DMHI as an augment to more traditional types of treatment rather than as a stand-alone intervention and have more severe clinical characteristics. The use of DMHI, however, is associated with a similar treatment gains whether it is used as a stand-alone or augmented treatment.
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4221042739