New Research: Talkspace Releases Early Findings that “Text Therapy” Highly Effective for Frontline Healthcare Workers at Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic
February 07 2023 - 8:00AM
Talkspace (Nasdaq: TALK), a leading behavioral healthcare company,
released early findings of a landmark study in the delivery of
asynchronous psychotherapy, which enables the ability to text with
licensed therapists, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March of 2020, researchers from Talkspace and leading
academic centers recruited healthcare workers (HCWs) from major
hospitals across the United States who were experiencing anxiety or
depression as they cared for COVID-19 patients during the initial
surge. Participants could send unlimited text messages to their
therapists and would receive counseling in the form of text
messages back from their respective therapists. The population
included physicians, nurses at several levels, residents in
training, and a small number of nonmedical sanitation workers.
Drawing on anonymized data from 601 HCWs across the United
States for a relatively brief period of one month, key findings
include:
- 56% reported clinically significant improvements in their
anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ-9) symptoms.
- This sample was more severe at baseline than our historical
user base by 5 points, reporting moderately-severe scores for both
anxiety and depression on beginning treatment.
- The improvements shown by HCWs translated into a large effect
size that puts it on par with effect sizes reported for traditional
therapy.
Additionally, researchers analyzed an expanded subset of subject
data (N=820) by leveraging machine learning capabilities called
Natural Language Processing (NLP), the ability of a computer to
anonymously and securely analyze what was written. Within this
subset, researchers wanted to understand more specifically what
brought the participants to treatment and how HCWs were engaging
with their assigned therapist through the digital app.
Key findings in this controlled group include:
- Analyses showed that roughly half of the HCWs sought care for
problems that pre-date COVID, seeing this as an opportunity to
‘finally’ begin treatment.
- For the other half, concerns about 1) bringing COVID home, and
2) experiencing patient deaths were a significant source of stress
leading to depression and anxiety.
- Analyses also suggested that most messages contained
present-tense verbs, like “am crying” and “is dying” suggesting
that messages were sent by HCWs while they were at work, for
example in the break room or between patient rounds, discussing
events shortly after they happened.
“Message-based care is a promising ‘lifeline’ during chaotic
times and for individuals with chaotic schedules. While the
uncertainty of COVID may be waning, the lives of healthcare workers
and many others are no less challenging,” said Derrick Hull, PhD,
Research Director, Talkspace, who leads a growing body of research
with more than 23 academic publications on messaging therapy.
“To say that the healthcare industry was rocked to its core is
an understatement, and no one knows that better than the physicians
and nurses treating patients, trying to contain a pandemic, with
dwindling space and resources--all while keeping themselves and
their families safe from harm,” said Dr. Jon Cohen, CEO of
Talkspace.
“The implications of our study show that one way to alleviate
the ongoing distress and disproportionate anxiety and burnout
presenting in healthcare workers is by availing a clinically-backed
digital delivery system to provide real-time support at the moments
where stress may be triggered,” said Cohen.
About Talkspace
Talkspace (NASDAQ: TALK) is a leading virtual behavioral
healthcare company committed to helping people lead healthier,
happier lives through access to high-quality mental healthcare. At
Talkspace, we believe that mental healthcare is core to overall
health and should be available to everyone.
Talkspace pioneered the ability to text with a licensed
therapist from anywhere and now offers a comprehensive suite of
mental health services from self-guided products to individual and
couples therapy, in addition to psychiatric treatment and
medication management. With Talkspace’s core psychotherapy
offering, members are matched with one of thousands of licensed
providers across all 50 states and can choose from a variety of
subscription plans including live video, text or audio chat
sessions and/or unlimited, asynchronous text messaging.
All care offered at Talkspace is delivered through an
easy-to-use, fully-encrypted web and mobile platform that meets
HIPAA, federal, and state regulatory requirements. Talkspace
covered approximately 86 million lives at September 30, 2022,
through partnerships with insurance and employee assistance
programs or other network behavioral health paid benefit
programs.
For more information, visit www.talkspace.com.
For Media:SKDKJohn Kim310-997-5963 jkim@skdknick.com
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