An interventional study of Digital Interventions and Treatment as Usual in Generalized Anxiety Disorder, sponsored by Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre. Completed at 1 site in Brazil. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-03-14.
Sponsored by Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Background: Over the last several years, there has been an increase in the popularity and availability of mobile digital technologies. Many recent studies have evaluated a range of mobile digital mental health interventions (DMHIs). Smartphone applications, remote monitoring, tracking devices, and wearable computers such as smartwatches and virtual reality headsets are being widely used for these studies. Besides that, psychometric scales are being used to help psychiatrists to improve treatment outcomes. The systematic administration of symptom rating scales and other assessment tools to help treatment decisions has been called measurement-based care (MBC) and it has shown good results in improving outcomes and time to response/remission of psychiatric diseases. As there is little data regarding MBC in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), the investigators decided to put technology and MBC together to study an easy and accessible way to improve the GAD usual treatment. Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the benefit of digital interventions as an add-on tool to "treatment-as-usual" (TAU) in GAD patients. Methods: A twelve-weeks randomized clinical trial will be performed with 60 GAD patients. The control group will receive TAU, defined as 30-minutes online consultation with a trained psychiatrist, consisting in symptoms evaluation, general orientations about the disorder and use of medication. The consultations are going to occur biweekly. The digital intervention group (active group) will receive TAU, associated with two digital tools. The first one consists of psychoeducational videos to be seen between the sessions and the second one includes self-application of GAD-7 scale the day before the next scheduled consultation. All these digital interventions are going to be accessed in a mobile application, called "+PSI", that is already available in Apple Store and Google Play. The participants are going to be instructed to download the application on their mobile phones for free. The videos are going to be created especially for this project and will use animations and educational content, being of short duration (average 3 minutes). GAD-7 scale, and Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) are going to be applied at baseline and at the end of the follow up by a blind rater. The investigators are also going to test the application tools usability using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Intermediate and follow-up evaluations will be performed to assess the speed and maintenance of improvement, respectively.
A) Psychoeducation videos: Five psychoeducation videos on mental health and GAD will be produced especially for the research to be watched by the patient between consultations. These videos will last approximately 3 minutes, will use animations and educational content. They will be available free of charge for the patient to watch on Artmed's "+PSI" app, available on both the Apple Store and Google Play. The topics of the videos will be as follows: Normal Anxiety versus Pathological Anxiety; Sleep Hygiene; Healthy Eating and Mental Health; Physical Exercise and Mental Health; Excessive Consumption of Alcohol and Drugs.
B) GAD-7 Scale: The patient will be instructed to respond to the GAD-7 self-administered scale the day before their next scheduled appointment. This instrument will also be available free of charge on Artmed's +PSI mobile application and will be used to guide clinical management.
The usual treatment will be standardized as follows:
4,868 studies on the registry are indexed under Anxiety Disorders; 1,390 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 60 is below the median of 80 across 4,174 interventional studies indexed under Anxiety Disorders.
Browse Anxiety Disorders studies →Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre is the lead sponsor of 450 studies on the registry; 61 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
The digital interventions will consist of two parts: A) Psychoeducation videos: Five psychoeducation videos on mental health and GAD will be produced especially for the research to be watched by the patient between consultations. These videos will last approximately 3 minutes, will use animations and educational content. They will be available on "+PSI" app. The topics of the videos will be as follows: Normal Anxiety versus Pathological Anxiety; Sleep Hygiene; Healthy Eating and Mental Health; Physical Exercise and Mental Health; Excessive Consumption of Alcohol and Drugs. B) GAD-7 Scale: The patient will be instructed to respond to the GAD-7 self-administered scale the day before their next scheduled appointment. This instrument will also be available free of charge on +PSI mobile app and will be used to guide clinical management. The above digital interventions will be added to the usual GAD treatment.
Other: Digital Interventions · Drug: Treatment as Usual
The usual treatment will be standardized as follows: Biweekly online consultations (via WhatsApp or Google Meet) previously scheduled, 20/30 minutes-long, with a trained psychiatrist. The patient will receive only clinical, not psychotherapeutic treatment. The psychiatrist will be instructed to perform an assessment of symptoms, general guidelines on the pathology, use of medication when necessary. The medication of choice, when necessary, will be fluoxetine, as it is the medication for the treatment of GAD available free of charge in our health system in Brazil.
Drug: Treatment as Usual
The digital interventions will consist of two parts: A) Psychoeducation videos: Five psychoeducation videos on mental health and GAD will be produced especially for the research to be watched by the patient between consultations. These videos will last approximately 3 minutes, will use animations and educational content. They will be available on "+PSI" app. The topics of the videos will be as follows: Normal Anxiety versus Pathological Anxiety; Sleep Hygiene; Healthy Eating and Mental Health; Physical Exercise and Mental Health; Excessive Consumption of Alcohol and Drugs. B) GAD-7 Scale: The patient will be instructed to respond to the GAD-7 self-administered scale the day before their next scheduled appointment. This instrument will also be available free of charge on +PSI mobile app and will be used to guide clinical management.
The usual treatment will be standardized as follows: Biweekly online consultations (via WhatsApp or Google Meet) previously scheduled, 20/30 minutes-long, with a trained psychiatrist. The patient will receive only clinical, not psychotherapeutic treatment. The psychiatrist will be instructed to perform an assessment of symptoms, general guidelines on the pathology, use of medication when necessary. The medication of choice, when necessary, will be fluoxetine, as it is the medication for the treatment of GAD available free of charge in our health system in Brazil.
Also known as: Care as Usual
Clinical change as measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale score
Patients will be evaluated at the beginning and at the endpoint of the study with the self-administered GAD-7 scale, and the difference found between the deltas (end minus initial) of the control and intervention groups will be considered the primary outcome of the study. The GAD-7 scale score ranges from 0 to 21 points. A score between 5 and 9 points characterizes mild GAD. Between 10 and 14, moderate GAD and between 15 and 21, severe GAD.
Time frame: The initial evaluation will take place before session 1 by a blinded evaluator and the final evaluation will take place shortly after the last session (12 weeks of treatment) also by a blinded evaluator.
Clinical improvement measured through Hamilton Anxiety (HAM-A) scale scores
Patients will be evaluated at the beginning and at the endpoint of the study with HAM-A scale, and the difference found between the deltas (end minus initial) of the control and intervention groups will be considered a secondary outcome of the study. The HAM-A's total score ranges from 0 to 56. The higher the score, the greater the patient's degree of anxiety.
Time frame: The initial evaluation will take place before session 1 by a blinded evaluator and the final evaluation will take place shortly after the last session (12 weeks of treatment) also by a blinded evaluator.
Treatment dropout rates
We will check if there was a significant difference between the dropout rates between the groups.
Time frame: Session 1 until session 6 (12 weeks long)
Speed of improvement measured by Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A)
Patients will be evaluated if there was a difference in the speed of improvement between the groups. HAM-A is going to be applied between session 3 and 4 to check this difference. The HAM-A's total score ranges from 0 to 56. The higher the score, the greater the patient's degree of anxiety.
Time frame: Between 4 and 6 weeks after the start of the study (between session 3 and session 4)
System usability evaluation
We will use the System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess the usability of the system used to deliver the interventions. The SUS score varies from 0 to 100 points, with 0 representing the worst acceptance and 100 the best acceptance of the analyzed digital tool.
Time frame: SUS will be applied through study completion, an average of 12 weeks after session 1
Level of satisfaction with the treatment received
We will use the Net Promoter Scale (NPS) to assess the level of satisfaction with the treatment received. The NPS consists of a numerical and visual scale (with representative "emojis") ranging from 0 to 10 points, with 0 being the lowest level of satisfaction with the treatment received and 10 the highest level of satisfaction with the treatment received.
Time frame: NPS will be applied through study completion, an average of 12 weeks after session 1
Relapse and treatment dropout rates after 3 and 6 months measured with Generalized Anxiety Disorder -7 scale (GAD-7)
Patients will be re-contacted at 3 and 6 months after the end of the study to complete GAD-7 scale. The GAD-7 scale score ranges from 0 to 21 points. A score between 5 and 9 points characterizes mild GAD. Between 10 and 14, moderate GAD and between 15 and 21, severe GAD.
Time frame: 3 and 6 months after the end of the study
Relapse and treatment dropout rates after 3 and 6 months measured with Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A)
Patients will be re-contacted at 3 and 6 months after the end of the study to complete HAM-A scale. The total score of HAM-A scale ranges from 0 to 56. The higher the score, the greater the patient's degree of anxiety.
Time frame: 3 and 6 months after the end of the study
Plan to share: No
This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre