TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Angelucci, Manuela
AU  - Fabregas, Raissa
AU  - Vazquez, Antonia
        TI  - The Well-Being Effects of Digital Mental Health Care
        PY  - 2026/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18538
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18538
        AB  - AI-powered mental health apps have attracted growing interest as a low-cost way to expand care. Yet questions remain about their effectiveness, safety, and whether they may crowd out psychotherapy. We evaluate one such app in a randomized controlled trial among 1,964 Mexican women with mild to severe psychological distress. Over six months, app access improved mental health by 0.3 standard deviations with no evidence of harm, improved sleep quality, increased healthful behaviors, and reduced missed work, yielding considerably larger benefits than costs. Treated participants were also more likely to seek traditional psychotherapy, but this increase does not explain most of the mental health gains. App use was high in the first month but then declined, as is common in digital interventions. Despite this drop in use, treatment effects persisted. Participants continued to implement practices promoted by the app, suggesting that even short-term engagement can produce durable improvements through sustained behavioral change.
        KW  - digital mental health
KW  - AI-powered care
KW  - well-being
KW  - randomized controlled trial
KW  - Mexico
KW  - behavioral change
KW  - mental health apps
KW  - sleep quality
KW  - labor productivity
KW  - psychotherapy
        ER  -