By Laurel White
A new UW–Madison study will examine how human-delivered coaching and digital prompts could make a popular mental health app more effective in decreasing an individual’s anxiety or depression symptoms.
The four-year, $2.8 million study is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. It will test whether users of the Healthy Minds Program, a widely-used meditation app, benefit from the addition of introductory coaching, on-demand email-based coaching, or digital prompts to support their use. The Health Minds Program was created by the UW–Madison Center for Healthy Minds’ partner non-profit Healthy Minds Innovations. Simon Goldberg, an associate professor in the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology and core faculty member at the Center for Healthy Minds, will lead the study.
Goldberg says although meditation apps are widely used, they often have low levels of user engagement and tend to be less effective than in-person mental health treatment.
“Adding small amounts of instructor support and digital prompts may increase the effectiveness of these apps — all while allowing users to continue benefitting from their convenience,” he says.
Participants in the project will follow the Health Minds Program’s four-week program, with some receiving the additional support. Their symptoms of anxiety and depression will be assessed before, during, and after the program.
Goldberg says the project aims to establish an even more effective model for the Healthy MInds Program while keeping the program low-burden and low-cost. It will also seek to learn who is most likely to benefit from specific additional supports.
“The United States is experiencing a mental health crisis and most individuals who could benefit from treatment do not receive it,” he says. “We hope our findings will help bring more effective treatment to more individuals who need it.”
Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Health Minds, and Inbal Nahum-Shani, professor at University of Michigan, are co-principal investigators on the project.
Broadly, Goldberg’s research focuses on the effects of and mechanisms underlying meditation- and mindfulness-based interventions. He recently published a study outlining several ways meditation apps could be even more effective supports of mental health. He is also currently leading a five-year project funded by the National Institutes of Health to increase scientific understanding of alternative health treatments including meditation, acupuncture, and chiropractic care.