The Aim of the Project:

Led by Dr. Leslie Tarver (Lead Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital), Dr. Vikram Patel (Co-I, Harvard Medical School), Dr. Paul Barreira (Co-I, Harvard), and Dr. John Naslund, (Co-I, Harvard Medical School), the iWellness Study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile mental health app to improve depression and anxiety in students (ages 18 and over) seeking mental health care at Harvard University Health Services.

Furthermore, this research will be extended to evaluating the app's effectiveness in graduate students who have performed a mental health screening but who may not be engaged in any mental health treatment.
 

The Background:

A significant percentage of Harvard University students seeking mental health services through the Harvard University Counseling Service usually have long waiting periods for an appointment. During this period, an individual's anxiety and depression symptoms would require management and care. The iWellness Study, through a pilot study tested the feasibility and acceptability of a mobile mental health app to improve these symptoms. As the pilot study was limited by digital enrollment, and only targeted students seeking care at Harvard University Health Services (HUHS), the full trial will broaden its enrollment to even students who complete a mental health screening as part of a campus-wide graduate student screening initiative, but who may not yet have sought care at HUHS.
 

The Project Plan:
 

The planned full trial will explore the potential mechanism of action through which the mobile app intervention may contribute to improvement in depression and anxiety among students. This will involve exploring possible mediators such as change in perceived social support. We will also explore possible moderators of the effect, such as students’ demographic characteristics, extracurricular engagement and degree of usage of the mobile app.

This study will also help provide understanding of how a mobile app tool can be used to improve access to care for students in need of services who are not yet seeking an appointment. This study will make a significant and novel contribution to research in college mental health by shedding light on the utility and effectiveness of mobile mental health applications in the college student population as well as potentially uncover the mechanism of action by which this new digital delivery tool affects mental health symptoms. 
 

Supporters and Project Duration:

The iWellness Study was generously supported by The Pershing Square Fund for Research on the Foundations of Human Behavior.