e-mental health

AYA-Onc's Anao Zhang receives grant to support research on tele-mental health intervention for AYA survivors

mental health study

Sponsor: St. Baldrick's Foundation

Project Date: July 2019 - June. 2021. PI: Zhang

Investigative Team:

Co-Investigators: Lindsay Bornheimer, Rashmi Chugh, Emily Walling, and Bradley Zebrack.

Research Staff: Nina Jackson Levin (coordinator), Ryann Feldman (coordinator)

Background: Depression and anxiety are detrimental to the treatment and recovery of AYA cancer patients, yet poorly treated due to: (1) psychotherapies not tailored for AYA patients’ needs, (2) low access to mental health providers trained to work with AYA patients, and (3) low compliance to face-to-face psychotherapy. Methods: This study will use a mixed-method randomized controlled trial among 50 participants who report (sub)clinical depression and/or anxiety at CS Mott Children’s Hospital, University of Michigan. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either clinician-assisted, computer-based CBT (treatment group) or stand-alone, computer-based CBT (control group). Baseline, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up assessment will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of clinician-assisted C-CBT versus C-CBT only. Participants from both treatment group (n=10) and control group (n=10) will be invited for a qualitative interview regarding their experiences of receiving the psychotherapy. Analysis: Quantitative analysis will include descriptive statistics, analysis of co-variance, and treatment effect size. Qualitative analysis will involve thematic coding and constant comparative to derive patterns and themes.