Research
Digital Solutions

The Center for Evaluation and Incubation of Digital Mental Health Interventions is dedicated to developing, testing, and validating innovative technologies that improve access to mental healthcare and enhance the lives of people experiencing mental health conditions.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital mental health solutions worldwide. Mobile applications, telehealth, and other digital technologies have demonstrated their potential to prevent and treat common mental health conditions by delivering evidence-based interventions, including approaches adapted from cognitive behavioral therapy. These technologies also strengthen communication between healthcare professionals and patients, improving engagement, adherence to treatment, and continuity of care.

Despite this progress, many digital mental health solutions still require rigorous scientific evaluation to establish their safety, effectiveness, and real-world applicability. In response to this need, the Center for Evaluation and Incubation of Digital Mental Health Interventions was established to develop, evaluate, and validate innovative digital technologies that support mental health prevention, treatment, and care. By generating robust scientific evidence, the Center contributes to expanding equitable access to high-quality mental healthcare and accelerating the translation of research into practical solutions for society.

Vínculo

The ‘Vínculo Project’ brings together two evidence-based psychological intervention programs – randomized clinical trials – grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapies (CBT) and contextual behavioral therapies.

The first, ‘Vínculo Transdiagnostic’, evaluates the effectiveness of a transdiagnostic psychological intervention for emotional symptoms (anxiety and depression) and sleep difficulties. The second trial, ‘Vínculo-OCD’, is designed for the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Both programs use a hybrid model of care, combining structured content delivered through WhatsApp, supported by a chatbot, with individual follow-up provided by a psychologist throughout the intervention. The first program is delivered entirely online via WhatsApp with professional support, compared with an active control based on digital psychoeducation. The second uses the same technological platform and hybrid care model.

In addition to investigating the clinical effectiveness of the interventions, the studies assess indicators of adherence, engagement, usability, acceptability, and implementation feasibility in a middle-income country. This model is expected to contribute to expanding access to evidence-based psychological treatments while preserving professional follow-up and clinical safety criteria.

Motherly+

The ‘Motherly Plus’ project aims to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention that combines single-session psychotherapy with support from the Motherly smartphone app for the treatment of postpartum depression (PPD).

The study addresses an important gap in understanding how brief psychotherapy combined with digital tools can improve postpartum depression treatment. In addition to examining reductions in depressive symptoms, it also investigates moderators, mediators, and specific treatment processes.

It is a randomized controlled trial involving 104 women aged 18 to 40 years, up to 12 months postpartum. Participants will be randomly assigned either to the intervention group or to a waitlist control group. The primary outcome is the reduction of depressive symptoms at four weeks, while secondary outcomes include changes in anxiety, sleep quality, parental stress, and the evaluation of mediating mechanisms such as the therapeutic alliance and engagement with the Motherly app.