New York, Mar 18: Grow Therapy (Grow), a mental health platform providing online and in-person care, today announced the publication of its first peer-reviewed outcomes study in JMIR Formative Research. The large-scale study examined what happens in everyday care when adults with elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, or both begin therapy with Grow. Among those who later completed follow-up symptom check-ins, about six in ten experienced clinically meaningful improvement, meaning they felt noticeably better, not just normal day-to-day fluctuations in mood.
In total, the study analyzed more than 200,000 adults who entered care between January 2022 and April 2024.
“This peer reviewed study adds evidence that many people receiving care through Grow see meaningful improvements over the course of care,” said Manoj Kanagaraj, MD, Chief Strategy Officer and Cofounder of Grow Therapy. “That can translate into day to day benefits like better sleep, less persistent anxiety, and feeling more like themselves.”
Validation of care effectiveness in a real-world setting
- This is demonstrable evidence at a very large scale. Instead of a small pilot or a tightly controlled research trial, the study reflects what happened for hundreds of thousands of adults receiving care in everyday life, using the same standard symptom check‑ins commonly used in clinical settings. This research helps to answer a common practical question: When people actually start therapy and keep going, do they tend to feel better over time?
- Clients formed strong therapeutic alliances, with nearly 70% continuing beyond the critical early sessions. This stands in stark contrast to industry data showing 37-45% of patients only attend therapy twice before disengaging.
- Depression and anxiety symptoms improved in a way many people would recognize in daily life. Among clients with follow-up check-ins, about 59% reached clinically meaningful improvement in depression and about 63% reached clinically meaningful improvement in anxiety. Put simply: many people moved from more frequent, more disruptive symptoms to symptoms that were milder and easier to manage. For example, less persistent worry, less intense low mood, or fewer sleep disruptions.
A small, statistically significant edge in symptom improvement when patients selected a specialty
Only about 35% of patients selected a provider specialty before starting care. Specialties could include trauma-informed care, cognitive behavioral therapy, or expertise in major depression. Additionally, about 5% selected a provider identity characteristic before starting care, such as race/ethnicity, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation.
Most people don’t come to therapy with a predetermined plan. But when they do, it may be associated with a small head start that, when scaled across a large population, could translate to meaningful gains. For example, among clients with follow-up check-ins, nearly 60% of those who selected a provider specialty for depression achieved meaningful improvement, compared to about 58% of those who did not.
Building on these findings: how Grow is continuing to improve care
This study reflects care delivered between 2022 and 2024. Since that time, Grow has expanded access and invested in product improvements designed to support engagement and therapist-client fit, two factors closely tied to outcomes in the broader mental health literature. In 2025, Grow’s total visit volume increased by 52%, bringing lifetime appointments to 10 million (internal company metrics). Grow also launched Between-Session Reflections, a tool that helps clients capture themes between sessions and share an optional summary with their provider; more than 35,000 clients have used it to date. Importantly, Grow is evaluating whether these investments translate into better engagement and symptom improvement using the same standardized check-ins used in this peer-reviewed study, and plans to share learnings in future research.
