Background: Depression and anxiety rates are rising. These debilitating disorders impact all aspects of life. Psychological therapies are more widely available than ever, but only ~50% of those treated recover. We must find ways to get people into the right form of treatment early. Most studies compare psychological therapy with medication or a wait list. However, the content of psychological therapies varies widely and different people are likely to respond to different therapeutic elements. Exploring this is difficult because usually we do not have good records of the focus of any one therapy session or treatment episode. To address this, we have partnered with ieso, the largest provider of digital mental health therapy in the UK. ieso have delivered over 650,000 hours of typed therapy, recording every interaction between patients and therapists. This de-identified dataset enables a detailed examination of symptom changes in relation to specific session content.
Opportunity: This project represents a unique opportunity, made possible by ieso, to quickly move from discovery to impact. The student will not only identify which therapeutic elements are most effective for which individuals, but will translate these findings into a stratified treatment approach that will be tested in a clinical trial.
Aims, objectives and timeline: The student will analyse data from patients with anxiety or depression treated with ieso’s usual care (year 1), or their new smartphone app (year 2). Both provide precise session content information and weekly symptom ratings. The student will identify patient characteristics or treatment features associated with improvement, then build a predictive model to maximise chance of recovery. In years 3 and 4, the student will work with ieso scientists to deliver a trial testing the clinical effectiveness of a treatment stratified to patient characteristics reflecting their predictive model.
Skills learned: Sophisticated analytical techniques, trial design, an integrated research approach in academia and industry.
