November 12, 2025
2 min read
Add topic to email alerts
Receive an email when new articles are posted on
Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .
“
data-action=”subscribe”>
Subscribe
We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.
Back to Healio
Key takeaways:
- Many people with psoriatic disease face a higher risk for depression and anxiety.
- Researchers found that the cognitive behavioral therapy app was both feasible and accepted by patients.
A cognitive behavioral therapy program delivered by smartphone app improved the mental health and quality of life of people with psoriatic disease, data from a pilot study show.
“People living with psoriasis face a higher risk of depression and anxiety, yet many never receive mental health support,” John Barbieri, MD, MBA, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the advanced acne therapeutics clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told Healio. “Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a proven treatment for depression, but in-person and telemedicine treatment can be limited by cost, access or stigma.”
In a single-arm, 8-week pilot study, published in the Journal of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, Barbieri and colleagues evaluated whether a coach-supported, smartphone-delivered program could make CBT more accessible and practical for people with psoriasis.
Thirty participants (mean age, 50.1 years) with at least mild depressive symptoms were enrolled in the program, which was led by lay coaches supervised by licensed psychologists. Participants were instructed to download the Mindset smartphone app, which includes education about a CBT model; cognitive techniques to identify thoughts related to depression; monitoring to increase participation in positive activities; mindfulness techniques; and cognitive skills to identify and challenge beliefs; and relapse prevention. Participants and coaches communicated through phone calls and messages in the app.
The primary outcomes of the study were feasibility as evaluated by module completion and acceptability as evaluated by the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8) and User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS). Investigators also evaluated secondary outcomes including patient health, anxiety and symptom inventory scores.
Results showed that 63% of participants completed four or more of the eight modules, 43.3% completed six or more and 26.7% completed the program. By week 8, the mean CSQ-8 and uMARS scores were 27.2 and 4, respectively. Since CSQ-8 scores greater than 25 and uMARS scores four or higher represent very high satisfaction and excellent app quality, the researchers concluded that the program is feasible and acceptable.
Investigators observed an improvement in mental health, with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores decreasing from 12.1 (moderate severity) at baseline to 7.7 (mild severity) at week 8 (mean change, 4.4; 95% CI, 2.3-6.5). Anxiety, as measured by General Anxiety Disorder-7 scores, also improved from baseline (mean chance, 2.8; 95% CI, 1-4.7); as did Appearance Anxiety Inventory scores (mean chance, 7; 95% CI, 4-10); Skindex symptoms (mean change, 5; 95% CI, 3-6.9); emotional wellbeing (mean change 10; 95% CI, 7-13.1); functioning (mean change 6.6; 95% CI, 4-8.8); and Psoriasis Symptom Inventory (mean change, 3.1; 95% CI, 0.6-5.5).
The improvement in mental health along with skin disease-quality of life symptoms highlights the potential role of smartphone-delivered CBT in psoriatic disease care, Barbieri said.
“If these results are confirmed in larger trials, smartphone-delivered CBT programs could become a valuable tool in dermatology practices,” Barbieri said. “This could empower dermatologists to screen for depression and anxiety using symptoms tools like the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and then to implement treatment directly using these novel care modalities.”
Barbieri told Healio that the high satisfaction and strong clinical signal are encouraging and provide a strong rationale for conducting larger, randomized studies to confirm the benefits of the program.
“This approach has the potential to expand access to mental health support, reduce stigma and help dermatologists and rheumatologists provide more holistic, patient-centered care,” Barbieri told Healio. “Ultimately, it’s about treating the whole person, not just their skin.”
For more information:
John Barbieri, MD, MBA, can be reached at jbarbieri@bwh.harvard.edu; YouTube: @DrJohnBarbieri; LinkedIn: John Barbieri, MD, MBA.
Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI’s knowledge base.
- PubMed, enrolling/recruiting trials, guidelines
- Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news
- Healio’s exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data
Learn more
Add topic to email alerts
Receive an email when new articles are posted on
Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .
“
data-action=”subscribe”>
Subscribe
We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.
Back to Healio
