Integration

Do mental health apps help between therapy sessions?

Short answer

Often, a little. A 2019 meta-analysis of 66 trials found mental health apps beat no app for depression, anxiety, and stress, with small effects. They helped most when a real person was involved and reminders kept people coming back. Useful support between sessions, not a replacement for care.

The research
Linardon, J., Cuijpers, P., Carlbring, P., Messer, M., and Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2019). The efficacy of app-supported smartphone interventions for mental health problems: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. World Psychiatry, volume 18, issue 3, pages 325 to 336.
Sample 66 randomized controlled trials of app-supported smartphone interventions
Published 2019
Journal World Psychiatry
Jake Linardon and colleagues pooled 66 randomized controlled trials of smartphone apps for mental health, the largest such review at the time. Across the trials, apps did better than the control conditions for several common problems: a small effect on depression (Hedges' g of 0.28), on generalized anxiety (0.30), on stress (0.35), and on quality of life (0.35). A larger g means a stronger effect, and these numbers sit at the small end, which means a real but modest average benefit rather than a dramatic one. The apps did not beat the controls for panic symptoms, post-traumatic stress symptoms, or negative mood. Two things made the apps work better: building them on cognitive behavioral therapy, and pairing them with some human guidance and reminders that nudged people to keep using them. The authors were careful to say these tools are meant to support care, not to stand in for a clinician.
Read the paper

What does this mean for you?

Here is the plain version. On average, across 66 trials, people who used a mental health app did a bit better than people who did not. The size of that bit was small. Small is not the same as nothing, and it is not the same as a fix. It is a steady, modest push that showed up again and again, mostly for depression, anxiety, and stress.

What stands out is less whether apps help and more what makes them help. The apps that did better were built on cognitive behavioral therapy, the same skills a lot of good therapy uses, and they came with a human somewhere in the loop and with reminders that brought people back. That last part matters more than it sounds. Most people download an app and stop opening it within a week or two. An app you actually use is the only kind that can do anything at all.

Now the honest limits. These are averages across many different apps, and the one you can download tonight may not be one of the ones that was tested. Most of the trials were short. And a benefit against no app at all is a lower bar than a benefit against real care. The research is clearer that apps beat nothing than that they match a clinician.

So the fair reading for the days between sessions is this. A good app can be a useful place to keep doing the work when no one else is in the room. It is a support for your care, not a substitute for it, and it does the most when it keeps you practicing rather than just tracking how you feel.

The takeaway

Terms in this page
Between-session support Integration

This is the work Asendar™ was built for: keeping the thread of your care alive in the days between sessions, when the app you reach for is often the only thing in the room. If you want a simple read on where your head is today, take your Mental Readiness Score.

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People also ask

Do apps actually work for depression specifically?

A separate 2017 meta-analysis by Firth and colleagues pooled 18 trials with 3,414 people and found a small-to-moderate benefit for depressive symptoms, with an effect size of 0.38. The benefit was clearer against an inactive comparison than against an active one, and the authors noted the evidence for severe, diagnosed major depression specifically was thin. Helpful for symptoms, not a stand-in for treatment.

Why do most mental health apps stop helping after a week?

Because almost nobody keeps using them. Across the research, the apps linked to better outcomes were the ones that held people's attention, usually through reminders and some human contact. An app only works while it is open, so engagement, not the download, is the thing that matters.

Is an app as good as seeing a therapist?

The evidence does not say that. Apps mostly beat having no app, which is a lower bar than matching real care. They look best as a companion to therapy, carrying the skills into the gap between sessions, rather than as a replacement for the person you talk to.

Explore more in the Integration pillar