What are you thinking?: Using CBT and Storytelling to Improve Mental Health Among College Students

ABSTRACT Depression and anxiety among college students have been on the rise globally. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has emerged as an empirically reinforced and effective treatment. However, factors like cost, lack of resources, misguided prioritization and stigmatization of mental health issues in the Global South limit students’ access to psychotherapy. While technology can bridge this gap, research shows current self-guided mHealth apps for CBT are not always evidence-based and have limited efficacy compared to therapist-guided alternatives. In this paper, we explore whether interactive storytelling and other gamification mechanisms can increase the efficacy of a self-guided mHealth app, while drawing from empirically supported CBT protocols. We designed an mHealth application with contextualised storylines to help students learn psychological concepts and better identify the negative patterns in their thoughts. We present the results of a 3-arm randomized controlled trial conducted to assess the effect of this application compared to active and inactive control conditions.