Digital Mental Health for Asian Americans

Anise Health: Digital Mental Health for Asian Americans

Overview

Key facts that identify this study and show where it stands today.

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07771322
Lead Sponsor: University of California, BerkeleyOTHER
Overall Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Phase: Not Applicable
Enrollment: 80Estimated
Last Update Posted: Aug 18, 2026Actual
Start Date: Jul 20, 2026Actual
Primary Completion Date: Mar 31, 2027Estimated
Completion Date: Apr 30, 2027Estimated

Description

What the study is about and why it is being run, in the researchers' own words.

Official Title: Anise Health: Digital Mental Health for Asian Americans
Brief Summary: Aim 1: Assess clinicians' receptiveness and potential use of Anise's online platform digital tools for managing sociocultural stressors and revise the tools for implementation. We will recruit 8 new clinicians (intervention group) who will receive training and provide feedback on the digital tools.

Aim 2: Evaluate the initial efficacy of the online platform digital tools for managing the impact of sociocultural stressors with 64 Asian American clients. The intervention group clinicians (receiving training and using the digital tools) and newly recruited 8 clinicians (not receiving training and not using the digital tools) for the control group will work with 4 clients each. The clinical outcome data of the clients will be analyzed to examine differences in the client prognosis between the control and intervention group.

A successful outcome of this project will be digital materials that effectively address the impact of sociocultural stressors for Asian Americans on Anise Health's digital health platform.

Conditions

The medical conditions and diseases this study investigates.

Mental Health
Cultural Adaptation
Psychotherapy

Interventions

The treatments and procedures being evaluated in this study.

Culturally-attuned digital tools

Participation

Who can join this study and the criteria used to decide.

Ages Eligible for Study: Adult (18-64)Older Adult (65+)
Sexes Eligible for Study: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
Eligibility Criteria: Clinician eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

New clinicians who have never provided services on the Anise Health platform

Exclusion Criteria:

Existing clinicians on the Anise Health platform

Client eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Asian American adults (age 18-90 years) who seek mental health services

resides in states in which Anise Health clinicians are licensed to provide care,

has access to reliable internet connection,

has signed the Informed Consent form prior to participants' entry into the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

Individuals seeking

treatment for serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder and psychotic disorders,

diagnosis for ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder,

treatment for eating disorder and substance use disorder,

attention for active suicidal ideation with plan and intent, or

persons lacking relevant decision-making capacity, or otherwise requiring a personal representative to indicate consent/authorization on their behalf, would be ineligible.

Design

How the study is designed and how its participant groups are organized.

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single

Contacts

The people to reach with questions about this study or how to join it.

Alice Zhang, MBAContact

alice@anisehealth.co424-209-2386

Locations

Where the study is run and whether each site is currently recruiting.

Anise Health (http://www.anisehealth.co)Recruiting

Brooklyn, New York 11216, United States

Collaborators

The organizations and people involved in this study.

Lead Sponsor: University of California, BerkeleyOTHER
Collaborators

Similar Studies

Other registered studies that closely resemble this one.

Unique sociocultural factors significantly impact the lived experiences and mental health of Asian Americans. Yet, these factors are often not considered or are overlooked in conventional evidence-based practices for psychotherapy. Ample research has found that these culture-specific stressors can give rise to psychopathology (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma, problematic substance use) among Asian Americans. The current diagnosis-driven, Eurocentric models of psychotherapy often do not account for these sociocultural determinants of mental well-being and can lack cultural sensitivity, leading to unsuccessful psychotherapy outcomes and a high burden from persistent mental health issues among this population.

To address this gap, Anise Health (Anise) has been pioneering the technology-enabled delivery of mental health care for Asian Americans. Anise develops clinical protocols that incorporate culture and intersectionality into evidence-based practices and technologies that enable the delivery of personalized treatments. Anise's online platform also includes tailored digital tools for clients and clinicians to leverage in treatment.

To improve access to high-quality mental health care services for Asian Americans, we will leverage our expertise and preliminary data to expand our online digital library of materials and tools. Specifically, the overall objective of this proposal is to develop and refine Anise Health's digital tools and accompanying clinician training programs for addressing key sociocultural factors in mental health treatments and to determine the feasibility and acceptability of these online platform tools. Our preliminary data elucidated common themes related to the negative impact of sociocultural stressors on clients' mental health outcomes, and the need for clinicians to address these issues in culturally-informed ways. Digital mental health clinical tools have been found to support treatment and homework adherence as they are easily accessible for clients and are easier for therapists to integrate into their treatment plans. However, existing digital mental health clinical tools were not developed for, nor tested with, the Asian American community and do not integrate their specific historical and sociocultural experiences. This project is a foundational step toward our long-term goal of demonstrating that Anise's online platform is effective in addressing unique sociocultural factors for Asian Americans.