AI-Based Fidelity Feedback to Enhance CBT
Completed · Not applicable
Conditions studied: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Therapy
In brief
This study is being conducted together by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Lyssn.io, Inc., ("Lyssn"), a technology start-up developing digital tools to support evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for mental health disorders and addiction. This study will implement a technology to assess and enhance the quality of EBPs like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that includes a user interface geared to clinical, supervision, and administrative workflows and needs, and then assess this technology for effectiveness in comparison to usual care. There is a tremendous global burden of mental illness: Over 50 million American adults have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and major depression on its own is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In the face of this burden, clinical research has documented a variety of effective EBPs (e.g. CBT), and these psychotherapies are utilized on a massive scale. Systems have invested over $2 billion in training providers in specific EBPs. Once trained, however, therapists' adherence to the EBP, also called fidelity, is both crucial for effectiveness and difficult to assess. There is no scalable method to assess the fidelity and quality of EBPs in community practice settings. This is a foundational problem for healthcare systems. Advances in speech processing and machine learning make technology a promising solution to this problem. The use of technology - instead of humans - to evaluate EBPs means that objective, performance-based feedback can be provided quickly, efficiently, cost-effectively, and without human error. If successful, the present research will be among the first examples of a method for building, monitoring, and assessing the quality of therapy that can scale up to large, real-world healthcare settings. In this study, the investigators will implement an existing, fully-functional prototype (LyssnCBT) that includes a user interface geared to community mental health (CMH) clinical, supervision, and administrative workflows and needs, and then assess for effectiveness of psychotherapy supported by LyssnCBT in comparison to usual care. This study will implement LyssnCBT in 5 community mental health agencies, beginning with a single-arm pilot field trial to identify and address any specific barriers to implementing the tool in a community mental health context. The study team will then conduct a larger study in community mental health agencies comparing LyssnCBT to services as usual.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT05340738
- Run by
- University of Pennsylvania
- People needed
- 449
- Starts
- 2023-03-09
- Expected to finish
- 2026-01-31
- Last updated by the study team
- 2026-03-24
Who can join
Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Therapists
- Able to participate in therapy sessions conducted in English
- Employed at a Philadelphia CMH treatment center that allows the recruitment and participation of therapists in research-related activities
- Willing to allow their session recordings to be used for research purposes
- Computer and internet access
- Supervisors
- Oversee participating therapists
- Computer and internet access
- Clients
- Able to participate in therapy sessions conducted in English
- Willing to allow the team to collect data and use their session recordings for research purposes
You may not qualify if…
- Unwilling to allow the research team to access their therapy session recordings
Where it is running
- The Penn Collaborative for CBT and Implementation Science — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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