# Mobile After-Care Support Intervention for Patients with Schizophrenia following Hospitalization

> **NIH NIH R34** · BUTLER HOSPITAL (PROVIDENCE, RI) · 2020 · $227,795

## Abstract

Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are associated with disproportionately high societal costs related to
treatment, disability, and morbidity/mortality. Patients' nonadherence to medications and psychosocial
treatments undermine the long-term management of these illnesses, making it difficult to achieve improved
quality of life and ultimate recovery. Patients are at particularly high risk of treatment gaps and poor coping
during the transitional period from inpatient hospitalization to outpatient care. Our long-term goal is to improve
the continuity of care for patients with psychosis by supporting a safer and more efficient transition from
inpatient to outpatient services. Our objective, which is the next step in attaining this long-term goal and
building on our previously funded work, is to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a
mobile device-delivered app, called Mobile After-Care Support (MACS), to improve patients' self-coping and
medication and appointment adherence following a hospitalization. We hypothesize that MACS, a response-
adaptive mobile app using empirically-supported cognitive behavioral strategies for psychosis, will lead to
increases in the target mechanisms of self-coping and medication/appointment adherence, which will produce
improvements in symptoms, and secondarily functioning and rehospitalization rates. Thus, establishing MACS
as a viable adjunctive treatment aid during the critical months immediately post-discharge will provide essential
data on a pathway to improved outcomes in adults with psychosis. The aims of this proposal are: (1) to use an
iterative process to refine a new mobile aftercare app by conducting an initial open trial (n=10); and (2) to
conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial (n = 50) of MACS vs. a mobile app time and attention control
condition to examine its preliminary effects. During the open trial, we also will collect qualitative data from local
stakeholders (e.g., patients, clinicians, administrators) to improve the intervention in preparation for the
randomized phase of the project and to establish clinicians' preferences for receiving clinical data from MACS.
The sample will consist of 60 patients total with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, recruited during an inpatient
psychiatric hospitalization and transitioning to outpatient care at local community mental health centers.
Patients will use MACS up to 4 months post-discharge, during which time we will longitudinally assess their
usage and outcomes. The approach is innovative in that it departs from the status quo by targeting this high
risk and understudied phase in the continuum of care and by delivering a brief intervention in real-time via an
app on patients' mobile phones. Successful completion of the proposed project will contribute significant
actionable data on the feasibility and acceptability of MACS and its initial effects on coping, treatment
adherence, and subsequent clinical outcomes (...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9924664
- **Project number:** 5R34MH115144-03
- **Recipient organization:** BUTLER HOSPITAL (PROVIDENCE, RI)
- **Principal Investigator:** BRANDON A GAUDIANO
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $227,795
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-10 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9924664

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9924664, Mobile After-Care Support Intervention for Patients with Schizophrenia following Hospitalization (5R34MH115144-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9924664. Licensed CC0.

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