Editor’s Note (12/23/25): This article was updated to reflect major conflicts of interest from the researchers involved.
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The common wisdom from psychiatry is that severe anxiety is a medical disorder that requires intensive treatment, usually including a combination of antidepressants and therapy.
But a new study contradicts that wisdom, demonstrating that minimal online interventions delivered via phone app led to full remission of anxiety in the majority of participants.
The study was a clinical trial of an app that delivered digital CBT (DCBT) at a patient-led pace. The app was compared to a control group of “digital psychoeducation”—online information about anxiety.
All participants began with severe generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Both groups did extremely well, with remission in more than 52% of those who received psychoeducation and 77.7% of those who received DCBT, at 24 weeks.
In total, 351 participants were randomly assigned to receive either psychoeducation or DCBT. About three-quarters were women, and about three-quarters were white. Participants were excluded if they were already receiving therapy for anxiety. About a quarter in both groups were taking medications for anxiety already—which means that about three-quarters of the participants received the digital intervention as their only form of treatment.
The study was led by E. Marie Parsons at Boston University and published in JAMA Network Open. Big Health, Inc, providers of the DCBT intervention, designed and sponsored the trial. Parsons (and other authors) were funded by Big Health, Inc, and five of the authors were direct employees of that company.
The main finding of the study was that DCBT was superior to the control group. Indeed, a remission rate of more than three-quarters, all who had severe anxiety at baseline, is a powerful outcome. But equally striking is that the psychoeducation group also did very well. It seems that just receiving information about anxiety led to remission in more than half of those participants, too.
One interesting point is that at 10 weeks, the DCBT group had already received the effect, with a 71% remission rate. However, the control group had a remission rate of 34.6% at this time point. This could indicate that the additional participants may have experienced their anxiety improving over time even without any intervention.
Strangely, medication seemed to increase the likelihood of remission in the DCBT group while reducing the likelihood of remission in the psychoeducation group. The researchers don’t address whether this could be due to a “nocebo” effect where those who took the medication believed they needed more intensive treatment.
The study had few dropouts, and the blinding was maintained for almost all participants. Questions remain about whether the participants reflect the general population in terms of gender, race, comorbidities, and more.
The researchers conclude that “the consistent evidence for the efficacy of this smartphone-accessible DCBT suggests it is a scalable, first-line treatment option for adults with GAD.” Yet their data also demonstrates that even less intensive approaches, like psychoeducation, were effective for more than half of the participants, and that medications may not be needed to treat even severe anxiety.
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Parsons, E. M., Ball, T., Carl, J., Henry, A. L., Emsley, R., Miller, C. B., . . . & Otto, M. W. (2025). Digital cognitive behavioral treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open 8(12), e2548884. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.48884 (Full text)
These medications are nothing but toxic chemicals and poisons that destroy peoples brain cells and harm them in other ways. Most people just want someone to pay attention to them and care about them. Shocking right? Like who could have guessed that people who are struggling in life want someone to care about them. Meanwhile there are people in the psychiatric field who are receiving millions of dollars for “research” which accomplishes absolutely nothing except for making the researchers feel special and important. None of this research helps anyone. It’s a waste of money and the government shouldn’t be funding any of it. Let these so called universities fund their own research and let them waste their own money. They probably would stop performing it the second there was no government funding left for them.
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Sure about that? Big Pharma’s got buckets of dough to keep “research” going.
They’re pretty good at underwriting medical school textbooks, too.
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The state of Massachusetts is such a disgrace. This is one of the states where they began socially engineering people and telling people that there’s something wrong with them because they have financial, social, or environmental issues in life. And of course because of their “illness” they have to take drugs for the rest of their lives. This state has made me a sick person. Because of this abusive system I have gone without medical care that I needed and I’ve suffered in pain and agony for years now. None of these people should be praised because they are still enabling a system of abuse and neglect. They are not heroes because they continue to sustain a system which has harmed millions of people and caused thousands to commit violent actions because of the drugs they were on or the amount of stress they were under. It’s such a nightmare living here. My only goal in life is to move to a free state or country and get away from these controlling, manipulative, and judgmental people who think they should be allowed to harm others and deny them the help they actually need.
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GET TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM:
People need to stop thinking anxiety means they should contact a medical doctor.
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Or some “therapist” — armed and ready to pick their brains and pockets.
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I agree 100% Matthew Mixon and Birdsong.
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🙂
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ANYONE EVER LEARNED ABOUT MINDFULNESS MEDITATION,THERE ARE GREAT COURSES TO LEARN THIS WONDERFUL FORM OF WORKING WITH YOUR OWN NERVOUS SYSTEM AND THE VAGUS NERVE AND PITUITARY GLAND,DRUGS HAVE BEEN USED FOR PSYCHIATRIC EXPLORATION SINCE BEFORE NAZI GERMANY ,TRULY SCARY,PLEASE GOOGLE MINDFULNESS TRAINING AND THE happiness Institute,there have been many changes in psychiatric care but we all need to educate and learn about it,God bless you all
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Until you read The Buddha Pill, and learn there are dangers even to meditation.
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This article was written with AI telling us that AI helps with people dealing with anxiety. Everything in this article is false. The studies used are not credited. AI cannot help people. Actual people help people. Human connection is the only way to support people. That’s all anyone wants.
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One human to another: SPEAK FOR YOURSELF
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Anxious people need perspective. AI offers this. It’s ability to pick up on emotional nuances usually kicks in once you let it know its endless lists aren’t cutting it.
Its intuitive ability often surpasses that of humans if you give it a chance.
At the very least, conversations with AI offer a place to let off steam without the hassle of dealing with some therapist’s cockeyed misinterpretations — something worth its weight in gold.
And as soon as you’ve had enough, you’re done. No overbearing therapist thinking up reasons you should keep paying them.
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… another easy way to give anxiety the old heave-ho is to try on substack for a whirl or two. You never know what you’ll stumble into:
“Aging Out of Fucks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend Anymore | Your brain’s middle finger to people-pleasing”, Ellen Scherr
Lesson? Listen to your own nervous system — the only voice that never tells you to “cope better”.
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What is this research ACTUALLY saying?
That people with anxiety — or any other “mental disorder” — don’t need “professionals” calling the shots.
That human beings don’t need “diagnoses” or “psych meds” handed out the default solution to life.
That people don’t need to be infantilized, managed, or marched through endless appointments to justify someone else’s career.
That there’s nothing pathological about feeling overwhelmed in a world that overwhelms.
More to the point: human beings were NOT put on this earth to bankroll a system that treats their distress as a revenue system.
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CORRECTION:
That human beings DO NOT NEED “diagnoses” or “psych meds” handed to them as the default solution to life.
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