Anxiety, depression and fatigue are frequent companions to chronic illness.
In a new randomized trial published August 20, 2026, in PLOS Medicine, 825 adults living with conditions such as heart failure, cirrhosis and chronic digestive disease saw those symptoms ease after 12 weeks with a self-guided digital program built around movement, breathing, meditation and coping-skills videos.
The scale of the underlying problem is large. About 6 in 10 US adults live with at least one chronic disease, and access to mental health care in this group is often limited.
In the trial, the authors note that anxiety, depression and fatigue affect more than half of adults across a range of chronic conditions.
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What the program involved
Participants used a platform called eMPower, which combines short expert-led videos on movement, breathwork and meditation, generally 3 to 35 minutes long, with a psychologist-led coping-skills course based on acceptance and commitment therapy.
That approach, a form of talk therapy, teaches people to accept difficult thoughts and act in line with their values. Disease-specific education videos and a weekly newsletter rounded it out.
Adults were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One waited on a list and received usual care, one used the app on its own, and one used the app with weekly 15-minute telephone check-ins from trained non-clinicians who applied motivational interviewing.
The average age was about 56, roughly 84 percent were women, and most participants lived in Canada or the United States.
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How much symptoms shifted
After 12 weeks, both digital groups did better than the control on a combined anxiety and depression score, measured on a 0 to 42 scale. The self-directed program cut symptoms by 2.6 points on average (95% CI, 1.8 to 3.5).
Adding weekly phone check-ins pushed the improvement to 2.9 points (95% CI, 2.0 to 3.8). The two active formats performed about equally, meaning the extra human support did not clearly outperform the app used alone.
Secondary outcomes moved in the same direction. Fatigue scores improved by 8.4 points in the phone-supported arm, a 19 percent relative gain, and mental-health quality of life rose modestly. Of those enrolled, 84.2 percent completed the 12-week assessment, a high retention rate for a fully remote trial.
What the evidence does and does not show
Because participants were randomly assigned, this trial carries more weight than observational studies that only track people who choose to use such programs. It also spans several disease groups rather than one condition, which strengthens the case that a single tool can work across chronic illness populations.
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The improvements are modest in absolute terms and were measured at three months. Longer-term data would help clarify how durable the benefits are.
The sample also skewed white, female and highly educated, so effects could look different in other groups. And the outcomes rest on self-reported symptom scores, not on clinical diagnoses of anxiety or depressive disorders.
For anyone living with a chronic condition and struggling with low mood, the finding is not a reason to skip a doctor's visit. Persistent anxiety or depression is worth raising with a clinician, especially if a chronic illness is already in play.
But the trial suggests a low-cost, self-directed digital tool can meaningfully lighten the load for a population that often struggles to access mental health support.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.