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The following is a summary of “A personal sensing technology enabled service versus a digital psychoeducation control for primary care patients with depression and anxiety: a pilot randomized controlled trial,” published in the November 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Shields et al.
Technology-enabled services (TES) combined technology-driven tools and person-powered support to address gaps in depression and anxiety treatments.
Researchers conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of a TES tailored for patients with Primary Care going through depression and/or anxiety.
They randomized participants to either the TES group using the “Vira” app or the Control group using the Mood Education app. Both apps tracked usage, and participants completed assessments on depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), quality of life (PedsQL), and engagement (TWEETs) at baseline, week 4, week 8, and week 12.
The results showed that 130 patients received the receive either the TES (Vira; Mage = 30) or ME (Mage= 33). Linear mixed-effects models showed significant improvements in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores for participants in both the TES and ME groups (ps < 0.001). There was no interaction effect of intervention and time for PHQ-9 (P = .90) or GAD-7 (P = .49). TES participants reported greater improvement in Physical Functioning (PedsQL) over time (P = .018). They also had higher engagement and app usage, but neither app usage nor coach interaction frequency moderated outcomes (ps ≥ 0.2).
They found that both TES and low-intensity psychoeducation treatments improved depressive and anxious symptoms. Future research was needed to identify patients who might benefit more from TES or personal sensing technologies over low-intensity treatments.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-06284-z
