Anhedonia is a risk factor for suicide and poor treatment response in depressed individuals. Most evidence-based psychological therapies target symptoms of heightened negative affect (e.g., negative inferential style) instead of deficits in positive affect (e.g., attenuated reward response) and typically show little benefit for anhedonia. Viewing positive scenes through virtual reality (VR) has been shown to increase positive affect and holds great promise for addressing anhedonic symptoms. In this pilot study, six participants with clinically significant depression completed 13 sessions of exposure to positive scenes in a controlled VR environment. Significant decreases were found in self-reported anhedonia, depression, anxiety, and impairments in functioning from baseline to 1-month follow-up. Negative affect decreased over all 13 sessions, and positive affect increased over sessions 8–13. Results suggest that positive experiences in VR may be a novel avenue for the treatment of anhedonia in depressed individuals.

Background The global burden of anxiety and depression has created an urgent need for scalable approaches to increase access to evidence-based mental health care. The Screening and Treatment for Anxiety and Depression (STAND) system of care was developed to meet this need through the use of internet-connected devices for assessment and provision of treatment. STAND triages to level of care (monitoring only, digital therapy with coaches, digital therapy assisted by clinicians in training, and clinical care) and then continuously monitors symptoms to adapt level of care. Triaging and adaptation are based on symptom severity and suicide risk scores obtained from computerized adaptive testing administered remotely. Objective This article discusses how the STAND system of care improves upon current clinical paradigms, and presents preliminary data on feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of STAND in a sample of US-based university students. Methods US-based university students were recruited and enrolled in an open trial of the STAND system of care. Participants were triaged based on initial symptom severity derived from a computerized adaptive test and monitored over 40 weeks on anxiety, depression, and suicide risk to inform treatment adaptation and evaluate preliminary effectiveness. Results Nearly 5000 students were screened and 516 received care. Depression and anxiety severity scores improved across all tiers (P<.001 in all cases). Suicide risk severity improved in the highest tier (ie, clinical care; P<.001). Acceptability and feasibility were demonstrated. Conclusions STAND is a feasible and acceptable model of care that can reach large numbers of individuals. STAND showed preliminary effectiveness on all primary outcome measures. Current directions to improve STAND are described.

BACKGROUND The global burden of anxiety and depression has created an urgent need for scalable approaches to increase access to evidence-based mental health care. The Screening and Treatment for Anxiety and Depression (STAND) system of care was developed to meet this need through the use of internet-connected devices for assessment and provision of treatment. STAND triages to level of care (monitoring only, digital therapy with coaches, digital therapy assisted by clinicians in training, and clinical care) and then continuously monitors symptoms to adapt level of care. Triaging and adaptation are based on symptom severity and suicide risk scores obtained from computerized adaptive testing administered remotely. OBJECTIVE This article discusses how the STAND system of care improves upon current clinical paradigms, and presents preliminary data on feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of STAND in a sample of US-based university students. METHODS US-based university students were recruited and enrolled in an open trial of the STAND system of care. Participants were triaged based on initial symptom severity derived from a computerized adaptive test and monitored over 40 weeks on anxiety, depression, and suicide risk to inform treatment adaptation and evaluate preliminary effectiveness. RESULTS Nearly 5000 students were screened and 516 received care. Depression and anxiety severity scores improved across all tiers. Suicide risk severity improved in the highest tier (i.e., clinical care). Acceptability and feasibility were demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS STAND is a feasible and acceptable model of care that can reach large numbers of individuals. STAND showed preliminary effectiveness on all primary outcome measures. Current directions to improve STAND are described. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on decreasing negative affect rather than increasing positive affect and is ineffective for some individuals. A trial comparing novel Positive Affect Treatment (PAT) to Negative Affect Treatment (NAT; a form of CBT) showed that PAT more effectively increased positive affect and decreased negative affect, depression, and anxiety (Craske et al., 2019). The present exploratory study examined threat sensitivity as a treatment moderator. Threat sensitivity was operationalized as pre-treatment skin conductance response and unconditional stimulus (US) expectancy rating during extinction recall. Participants ( N = 43) then received 15 sessions of PAT or NAT. Growth curve models were tested to explore interactions between extinction recall and treatment condition over time. For skin conductance, weaker extinction recall predicted faster improvement in depression and anxiety in NAT than PAT, whereas stronger extinction recall predicted faster improvement in symptoms in PAT than NAT. Reduced US expectancy ratings predicted a faster decrease in symptoms, regardless of treatment condition. Individuals showing greater threat sensitivity, indexed by weaker extinction recall, may benefit more from a treatment that targets threat sensitivity than a treatment that targets reward sensitivity. Individuals showing the converse may benefit more quickly from a treatment that targets reward sensitivity than threat sensitivity.