Text messaging: The next gen of therapy in mental health
A psychotherapy tool in real-time that enhances care

Date:
July 28, 2020
Source:
Dartmouth College
Summary:
In the US, approximately 19% of all adults have a diagnosable
mental illness. Clinic-based services may fall short of meeting
patient needs.

In the first randomized controlled trial of its kind, a team
investigated the impact of a texting intervention as an add-on to a
mental health treatment program versus one without it. A new study
finds that a text- messaging-based intervention can be a safe,
clinically promising and feasible tool to augment care for people
with serious mental illness.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In the U.S., it is estimated that approximately 19 percent of all
adults have a diagnosable mental illness. Clinic-based services for
mental health may fall short of meeting patient needs for many reasons including limited hours, difficulty accessing care and cost. In the first randomized controlled trial of its kind, a research team investigated
the impact of a texting intervention as an add-on to a mental health
treatment program versus one without texting. A text-messaging-based intervention can be a safe, clinically promising and feasible tool to
augment care for people with serious mental illness, according to a new
study published in Psychiatric Services.


========================================================================== Ninety-one percent of participants found the text-messaging acceptable,
94 percent indicated that it made them feel better and 87 percent said
they would recommend it to a friend.

"This study is very exciting because we saw real improvement in those
who utilized the text messaging-based intervention on top of normal
care. This was true for individuals with some of the most serious forms
of mental illness," explained co-author, William J. Hudenko, a research assistant professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences
at Dartmouth, and an adjunct assistant professor of clinical psychology
in Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. "The results are promising,
and we anticipate that people with less severe psychopathology may even
do better with this type of mobile intervention." With the COVID-19
pandemic, many people's schedules have been upended, which may prevent individuals with mental illness from having routine access to a therapist,
such as parents who have children at home. "Texting can help bridge this
gap, by providing a means for mental health services to be continuously delivered. A text-messaging psychotherapy is an excellent match for
the current environment, as it provides asynchronous contact with a
mental health therapist while increasing the amount of contact that an individual can have," explained Hudenko.

For the study, the research team examined the impact of text-messaging
as an add-on to an assertive community treatment program versus the
latter alone.

Through an assertive community treatment program, those with serious
mental illness have a designated team who helps them with life skills,
such as finding a job and housing, managing medications, as well as
providing daily, in-person clinic-based services. People with serious
mental illness are likely though to experience symptoms each day for which
they may need additional therapy. The study was a three-month pilot,
which was assessor blind. There were 49 participants: 62 percent had schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, 24 percent had bipolar disorder
and 14 percent had depression. Assessments were conducted at baseline, post-trial (three months later) and during a follow-up six months later.

Licensed mental health clinicians served as the mobile
interventionists. They received a standard training program on how to
engage effectively and in a personal way with participants. The mobile interventionists were monitored on a weekly basis to ensure that they
were adhering to the treatment protocol.

Throughout the trial, over 12,000 messages were sent, and every message
was encoded, monitored and discussed with a clinician.

The results demonstrated that 95 percent initiated the intervention and
texted 69 percent of possible days with an average of four texts per
day. On average, participants sent roughly 165 or more text messages and received 158 or more messages. The intervention was found to be safe,
as there were zero adverse events reported.

Today, there are more than 575,000 mental health therapists in the U.S. By 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that
the country will be over 250,000 therapists short. "A messaging-based intervention is an incredibly scalable, cost-effective way to help
manage the enormous shortage of mental health capability in the U.S.,"
added Hudenko.

The researchers are planning to study the impact of a messaging
intervention in mental health on a much larger scale.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Dartmouth_College. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Dror Ben-Zeev, Benjamin Buck, Suzanne Meller, William J. Hudenko,
Kevin
A. Hallgren. Augmenting Evidence-Based Care With a Texting Mobile
Interventionist: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. Psychiatric
Services, 2020; appi.ps.2020002 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000239 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200728155457.htm

--- up 1 week, 6 days, 1 hour, 55 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)