A Conversational Agent (PracticePal) to Support the Delivery of a Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression in Rural India: Development and Pilot-Testing Study
The PracticePal chatbot is a feasible and acceptable therapy aid to complement a psychological treatment, with promising potential to enhance the effectiveness of NSP-delivered psychosocial interventions in low-resource settings. Future steps include conducting a fully powered randomized controlled trial to assess its effectiveness in improving mental health outcomes.
Authors
- Luigi Bagnoli
- Anant Bhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7456-535X)
- Neal Lesh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0027-3247)
- Kimberley Monteiro
- Sonu Sharma
- Julia R Pozuelo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3058-0371)
- Abhijit Nadkarni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5832-5236)
- Nityasri Sankha Narasimhamurti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2631-4748)
- Vikram Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1066-8584)
- Harshita Yadav
- Shradha S. Parsekar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8824-9198)
- Ravindra Agrawal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1028-9349)
- Lauren Magoun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4073-5071)
- Mohit Saxena
- Tilak Raj Sharma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6723-2330)
- Mohit Sood
- Amruta Suryawanshi
- Aman Bariya
- Shravani Narvekar
Institutions
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
- Sangath (IN)
- Dimagi (United States) (US)
- Harvard Global Health Institute (US)
- Impact India (IN)
- Manipal Hospital (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JMIR Formative Research
- Published
- 2025-08-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2196/73563
- Primary Topic
- Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Indian Council of Medical Research