Knowledge Barriers to Mental Health Care

Last registered on October 16, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Knowledge Barriers to Mental Health Care
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019911
Initial registration date
October 08, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 16, 2026, 2:07 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Manuela Angelucci
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Vatsal Khandelwal
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Sonia Bhalotra
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2026-10-08
End date
2027-12-08
Keywords
Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study whether knowledge is a barrier to mental health care for women in rural India.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Angelucci, Manuela, Sonia Bhalotra and Vatsal Khandelwal. 2026. "Knowledge Barriers to Mental Health Care." AEA RCT Registry. October 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19911-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study investigates whether informing eligible users of the existence of free mental health care tools and provide feedback about their psychological distress is sufficient to generate service use. Our conjecture is that is is not. Thus, providing mental health care services at scale without also concurrently addressing demand-side barriers to care in general, and non-monetary barriers specifically, may lead to a paradox of effective, low-care services not being used in equilibrium.


Concretely, we will provide information about the existence of a free mental health care service, with further encouragement to use and share and help to navigate this service, alone or in conjunction with whether the person has symptoms of depression and anxiety. We will then measure impacts on service use at endline.

We will conduct a baseline survey with approximately 3600 women
across 60 villages in rural Rajasthan, India. The survey will
collect information on women's socioeconomic characteristics, including symptoms of depression and anxiety measured using
the PHQ-4 scale. At the end of the baseline survey, respondents will be randomly assigned at the individual level to one of three
experimental arms
Intervention Start Date
2026-10-08
Intervention End Date
2027-04-08

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Reported use: Whether the respondent called Tele-MANAS and the number of calls made.

Verified use: Whether the Tele-MANAS number appears in the respondent’s recent call log, where verification is permitted.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will randomly allocate 3600 to three arms of identical size.

Control. No information or feedback.

Treatment 1. Receives information about Telemanas, a free government service, and assistance accessing it. Participants are encouraged to use the service or share the information with other women in the village who may find it useful. Telemanas lets people speak by phone with a trained counsellor when they feel worried, low, stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed.

Treatment 2. Receives all of Treatment 1, plus feedback about their anxiety and depression levels, as measured by the PHQ-4.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Individual, done by surveyCTO
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
n/a
Sample size: planned number of observations
3,600
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
3 arms of 1,200 each
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Texas at Austin
IRB Approval Date
2026-06-01
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00009340
Analysis Plan

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