Mobile therapy company Talkspace is partnering with two universities to validate its primarily text-based mental health services. Initially, they’ll test the platform in a 500-person study of anxiety, stress, and depression at Columbia University, while working with Dr. George Nitzburg and Dr. Barry Farber, who specialize in research around the use of technology in the therapy process. The company hopes to see the results of this study within a few months.

The patients will be recruited from Talkspace’s existing user base and evaluated via surveys and assessments delivered through the platform.

“In a sense, the research we’re doing with Columbia and Duke is just an extension of what we’ve been doing,” Cofounder and CEO Oren Frank told MobiHealthNews. “Every patient that uses Talkspace is undergoing what’s called evidence-based treatment, which is using the clinical outcome measures to gauge whether you’re better or not. If you’re not doing better, maybe the diagnosis was wrong, maybe the therapy was wrong, maybe the timing or maybe the approach was wrong, but we fix it. But if we don’t know what was wrong, we can’t fix it.”

The patients will be recruited from Talkspace’s existing user base and evaluated via surveys and assessments delivered through the platform.As for that Duke study, it is expected to begin in the near future, focusing on PTSD patients, who are already a large subgroup within the Talkspace user base. There, Talkspace will work with PTSD research and clinical expert Dr. Patricia Resick. The company has also added behavioral health expert Dr. Andrew Sekel, who previously served as CEO of specialty networks for Optum, as an advisor.

Talkspace has raised $13 million over the last two years, providing users with access to trained therapists via its platform. Beyond text messages, users can also request a video visit.

UPDATE: Talkspace has released a summary of A Preliminary Study of Talkspace’s Text-based Psychotherapy. You can download it (PDF) from here.