Messaging Therapy for Depression and Anxiety: A Longitudinal Effectiveness Study

Asynchronous Messaging Therapy for Depression and Anxiety: A Longitudinal Study

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03699488

Enrollment

12980

Registered

2018-10-09

Start date

2016-01-01

Completion date

2018-02-01

Last updated

2019-02-06

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Symptoms

Keywords

technology, messaging psychotherapy, depression, anxiety, telehealth

Brief summary

Therapies delivered via technology have been developed to improve accessibility, however, there is limited research regarding messaging therapy in particular, and none that we know of utilizing a longitudinal effectiveness design. The aim of this study was to investigate the overall effectiveness of messaging therapy, identify any contributors to its effectiveness, and to evaluate a dosage effect for this type of treatment.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALpsychotherapy via asynchronous message

Behavioral psychotherapy delivered by asynchronous message using the Talkspace application

Study design

Observational model

ECOLOGIC_OR_COMMUNITY

Time perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 70 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Diagnosed Depression and/or Anxiety Disorder

Exclusion criteria

* Any psychosis related symptoms or disorders

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Change from Baseline in Depressive symptoms on the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9	Up to 52 weeks	Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9) is a measure of depression symptoms. It has 9 items, with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 27, with higher scores indicating more symptoms and distress. Decreasing scores indicate better outcome. All items are summed to give the summary score.
Change from Baseline in Anxiety symptoms on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7	Up to 52 weeks	Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7) is a measure of anxiety symptoms. It has 7 items, with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 21, with higher scores indicating more symptoms and distress. Decreasing scores indicate better outcome. All items are summed to give the summary score.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Mean number of words sent from patient to therapist	Up to 52 weeks	Word counts of the words contained within messages sent
Mean number of words sent from therapist to patient	Up to 52 weeks	Word counts of the words contained within messages sent

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 18, 2026