Mobile Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Medical and Graduate Students

Not Applicable

Recruiting

Interventions: Behavioral: Clinician Delivered CBT
Behavioral: Supplemental MAYA App

Brief Summary: 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.

Detailed 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.

Recruitment & Eligibility

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

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Clinician-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy only	Clinician Delivered CBT	Participants receive treatment with a licensed clinician for 6 weeks.
Clinician-delivered CBT + Supplemental app	Clinician Delivered CBT	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
Clinician-delivered CBT + Supplemental app	Supplemental MAYA App	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

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in depressive symptoms from baseline to end of treatment as measured by the PHQ-9	Baseline to endpoint [Week 6]	The primary symptom measure for depression will be the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item measure (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 is a 9-item self-report questionnaire measure of the severity of depression symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 27, where higher scores indicate a greater severity of symptoms, and lower scores indicate mild to no depression symptoms.
Change in anxiety symptoms from baseline to end of treatment as measured by the GAD-7.	Baseline to endpoint [Week 6]	The primary symptom measure for anxiety will be the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale. The GAD-7 is a 7-item self-report questionnaire measure of the severity of generalized anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 27 where higher scores indicate a greater severity of symptoms, and lower scores indicate mild to no anxiety symptoms.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Adherence as measured by the mean difference in total number of completed clinician assigned homework between groups	Endpoint [Week 6]
Retention as measured by the mean difference in total number of completed study weeks between groups	Endpoint [Week 6]

Locations (1): Weill Cornell Medical College
🇺🇸
New York, New York, United States