Publications by authors named "M Pirner"

Background: The ability of digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) to reduce mental health disparities relies on the recruitment of research participants with diverse sociodemographic and self-identity characteristics. Despite its importance, sociodemographic reporting in research is often limited, and the state of reporting practices in DMHI research in particular has not been comprehensively reviewed.

Objectives: To characterise the state of sociodemographic data reported in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of app-based DMHIs published globally from 2007 to 2022.

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Background: Mental illness is a pervasive worldwide public health issue. Residentially vulnerable populations, such as those living in rural medically underserved areas (MUAs) or mental health provider shortage areas (MHPSAs), face unique access barriers to mental health care. Despite the growth of digital mental health interventions using relational agent technology, little is known about their use patterns, efficacy, and favorability among residentially vulnerable populations.

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Background: Research investigating the potential for digital mental health interventions with integrated relational agents to improve mental health outcomes is in its infancy. By delivering evidence-based mental health interventions through tailored, empathic conversations, relational agents have the potential to help individuals manage their stress and mood, and increase positive mental health.

Aims: The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to assess whether a smartphone app delivering mental health support through a relational agent, , is associated with changes in stress, burnout, and resilience over 8 weeks, and 2) to identify demographic and clinical factors associated with changes in these outcomes.

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Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are prevalent and compromise health and wellbeing. Scalable solutions, such as digital therapeutics, may offer a population-based strategy for addressing SUDs. Two formative studies supported the feasibility and acceptability of the relational agent Woebot, an animated screen-based social robot, for treating SUDs (W-SUDs) in adults.

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We derive a multi-species BGK model with velocity-dependent collision frequency for a non-reactive, multi-component gas mixture. The model is derived by minimizing a weighted entropy under the constraint that the number of particles of each species, total momentum, and total energy are conserved. We prove that this minimization problem admits a unique solution for very general collision frequencies.

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