Focus of Dr. Newman's Current Projects

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Online Cognitive Behavior Therapy Project

 

A big focus of my research has been on technology. I am currently a PI on a 5-year R01 to run a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare a coached mobile intervention (delivered by Smartphones) to usual care. Coaches guide participants on use of the program and its techniques via text messaging. This RCT has been screening undergraduates at a population level to determine who is at risk for or at clinical levels of an anxiety depression or eating disorder. It will be delivered within about 20 colleges and universities (8000 participants) to treat and prevent anxiety disorders, major depression, and eating disorders. It encompasses PI’s at 4 Universities (Penn State, Washington University, University of Michigan, and Palo Alto University). As a PI, my role includes ensuring fidelity of the intervention delivery. 

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Emotion in Motion Study
 

Also encompassing technology, I have separately submitted multiple NSF and seed grants with an interdisciplinary team at PSU (in Information Science and Technology, Statistics, and Social Psychology) to detect emotion using machine learning. Our recently completed NSF grant examined whether we could predict the ability of pictorial stimuli to elicit emotion using machine learning techniques. Our current and future grant submissions (to NSF and NIMH) will aim to detect major depression and anxiety disorders from nonverbal cues of patients using video of their body movements analyzed with machine learning. We recently received a seed grant for this project to collect pilot data and IRB approval to recruit patients from our clinic as well as from the community.
 

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Social Phobia​

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Continuing the technology theme, I am also part of an mhealth center of researchers from Stanford and Palo Alto Universities. We will continue to meet weekly via Zoom to discuss multiple ongoing and future possible projects. For example, we are working with a virtual reality startup company to develop a virtual reality intervention for people with social anxiety disorder. We have developed various scripts for two virtual reality videos and the company produced them using actors. We then received IRB approval and have been recruiting participants since January 2019. We will examine the efficacy of the videos (which involve virtual exposure to a job interview and a party) in reducing social anxiety disorder compared to a wait-list control group. 

 

Blended Therapy Study

I also plan to work with my Stanford mhealth collaborators to conduct an RCT of blended video-therapy sessions and Internet intervention (already validated in Europe) delivered to treat anxious and depressed college students at Penn State and Stanford University. This treatment will entail weekly remote therapy sessions, as well as homework completed via computer. We are currently working on the IRB submission for this study. 

 

Artificial Intelligence in Psychiatry Study

In addition, I and my collaborators have also designed a study in collaboration with another company called Elipsis Health that uses a smartphone application to detect depression and anxiety from a 5 minute voice recording. Our study aims to determine if the app will be able to detect clinical levels of depression and anxiety. I have also begun discussions with a researcher at Drexel University to collaborate on an R01 that uses machine learning to adapt mobile interventions to users. 

 

Ecological Momentary Intervention Studies

Some of my work with graduate students will also continue to focus on use of Smartphones for momentary intervention. I have been working with three graduate students to each separately design their own momentary Smartphone-based interventions for anxiety disorders. One of them has been collecting data for his dissertation which focuses on enhancing positive mood, an understudied phenomenon in anxiety disorders. His intervention prompts participants to focus on positive events and to spend time savoring them. For another student’s dissertation, participants are prompted to use mindfulness techniques in the moment and to test whether this intervention positively impacts executive functioning in addition to anxiety symptoms. A third student, is collecting data for a Smartphone application-based intervention for the delivery of an exposure intervention.
 

Ecological Momentary Assessment & Network Analysis Projects

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At the same time, I plan to continue using Smartphones for momentary assessment of anxiety and depression. I have been collaborating with researchers at Emory University and Harvard to submit a grant to conduct a 3-site RCT for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) that will use intensive repeated biological, physiological, and self-report measures collected via Smartphone technology. We hope to compare cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to massage therapy. We already submitted a U01 for this study and have recently submitted a resubmission Also incorporating Smartphone based intensive repeated measures, another student’s dissertation is examining relationships between ongoing symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression using network analysis. I will also continue to do lab studies looking at theories of etiology and maintenance of generalized anxiety disorder symptoms using momentary assessment. We have several that are currently ongoing. Furthermore, I am writing up data for a collaborative study between me, Ken Levy, and Aaron Pincus, that used momentary assessment of symptoms in anxious and borderline personality disorder patients. In addition to projects already mentioned, I foresee developing and testing other technology-based projects.

Basic Experimental Studies

 

At the same time, I plan to continue doing basic experimental studies to examine mechanisms of treatment and/or maintenance of anxiety and depressive disorders. Gavin Rackoff, has been collecting data for his Masters study to examine the effects of worry on exposure treatment, as there was some preliminary evidence that worry interferes with fear extinction. Hanjoo Kim’s dissertation examined my Contrast Avoidance Theory as a transdiagnostic phenomenon in an experimental study where worry was manipulated, and emotion was detected in anxious and depressed participants using facial coding of emotion software. Hanjoo is also currently writing up for publication his Master’s study that looked at Contrast Avoidance using physiological and emotional reactivity. Furthermore, Sandra Llera and I recently submitted a paper from an experimental study examining the effect of worry on problem-solving.  We also currently have a lab study examining the effect of worry on avoidance of an emotional contrast that extends some of our previous work using personalized emotion evocation techniques.