Online Positive Emotion Skills Intervention for Symptoms of Depression (MARIGOLD)

December 29, 2017 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

Online Positive Emotion Skills Intervention for Symptoms of Depression - Pilot Feasibility Trial

Major depressive disorder affects over 120 million people worldwide. Only 50% of Americans with depression receive adequate treatment, and one-third of those receiving treatment do not benefit. In this pilot project investigators will bring together two approaches that have the promise to reach large numbers of depression sufferers: a skills-based intervention for increasing positive affect and experiences in depressed individuals, delivered in an inexpensive self-paced mobile format. The study will make use of smartphone technology to improve conventional outcome measurement via in-the-moment emotion sampling and mobile assessment of heart rate variability, a predictor of cardiac health that may mediate some of the health effects of depression. The aims are: 1) Retool the existing web-based positive emotion intervention for use on smartphones, with innovative exercises that help participants bring the skills they are learning into real- life situations; 2) Measure heart rate variability and emotions using existing smartphone software; and 3) Perform a randomized pilot trial of the mobile intervention on individuals with clinical depression recruited online.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
95

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • San Francisco, California, United States, 94143-1726
        • University of California, San Francisco - Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Daily internet access
  • Cell phone ownership
  • Score of 10 or greater on the PHQ-8 depression scale

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Positive affect skills intervention
Participants receive a 5-week intervention providing training in 8 skills for generating positive affect.
Behavioral: Positive Affect Skills Training

Our intervention teaches 8 skills that research suggests lead to increased positive emotions, beginning with basic skills (recognizing and savoring positive events), and progressing to more complex ones such as goal- setting and acts of kindness. Established skills such as reappraising negative thoughts are also taught, in the context of cultivating positive emotions and coping with stress.

The skills are taught over 5 weeks, with one or more new skills introduced each week. A week consists of 1-2 days of didactic material and 5-6 days of real-life skills practice and reporting.

For a full description, see "A positive affect intervention for people experiencing health-related stress: development and non-randomized pilot test" (Moskowitz et al., 2012).

Other Names:
  • DAHLIA
  • MARIGOLD
No Intervention: Emotion reporting
Participants report emotions on the same regular basis as intervention participants, but receive no intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Retention / feasibility
Time Frame: 3 months after completion of intervention (5 months post-enrollment, may be slightly more or less for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
Determine percentage of participants providing data at each stage of the study (intervention phase, post-intervention, 1 month followup, 3 month followup)
3 months after completion of intervention (5 months post-enrollment, may be slightly more or less for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
Depression symptoms (PHQ-9 questionnaire)
Time Frame: 60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
Depression symptoms (CES-D questionnaire)
Time Frame: 60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Perceived Stress (PSS questionnaire)
Time Frame: 60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
Positive and Negative affect (DES questionnaire)
Time Frame: 60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
60 days after enrollment (administered immediately post-intervention, may be slightly more or less than 60 days for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
Depression symptoms at follow-up (CESD questionnaire)
Time Frame: 3 months after completion of intervention (5 months post-enrollment, may be slightly more or less for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
3 months after completion of intervention (5 months post-enrollment, may be slightly more or less for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
Depression symptoms at follow-up (PHQ-9 questionnaire)
Time Frame: 3 months after completion of intervention (5 months post-enrollment, may be slightly more or less for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)
3 months after completion of intervention (5 months post-enrollment, may be slightly more or less for intervention participants depending on time taken to complete the course)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of California, San Francisco

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Judith T Moskowitz, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
  • Principal Investigator: Michael A Cohn, PhD, University of California, San Francisco

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
July 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
June 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
August 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
October 10, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
October 14, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
October 17, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
January 3, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
December 29, 2017

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
December 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • UCSF CHR 13-12256

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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