Promotion of Self-help Strategies for Depression

December 9, 2013 updated by: Amy Morgan, Orygen
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of health promotion emails for depression. It is hypothesised that emails containing self-help advice will improve depression symptoms more than emails containing information about depression.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Depression symptoms are commonly experienced and disrupt day-to-day life. Increasing depression literacy and the use of effective self-help methods could improve depression across the community. The internet is an ideal promotional medium for health messages, because it is often used to search for information about mental health issues, and health messages can be widely disseminated at little cost. An email campaign could be a low-cost approach to improving self-help behavior and knowledge about depression in adults with depression symptoms.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1736

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

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

  • Australia
    • Victoria
      • Parkville, Victoria, Australia, 3052
        • Orygen Youth Health Research Centre

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Access to the internet at least once per week
  • Resident of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, USA

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: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Self-help advice
Each email will contain a self-help strategy for coping with depressive symptoms. The email will contain information about why the strategy will be effective, tips for implementing the strategy and overcoming barriers, and how to set a goal to implement the strategy. Strategies are based on previous research published by the trial co-ordinators.
Behavioral: Mood Memo emails
Participants will receive 12 emails over 6 weeks.
Placebo Comparator: Depression information
Each email will contain different information about depression, such as symptoms, risk factors, prevalence.
Behavioral: Mood Memo emails
Participants will receive 12 emails over 6 weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Depression symptom score on PHQ-9 at post-intervention
Time Frame: 6-weeks post baseline
6-weeks post baseline
Depression symptom score on PHQ-9 at 6-month follow-up
Time Frame: 6-months post end-of-intervention
6-months post end-of-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Psychological distress on K10 at post-intervention
Time Frame: 6-weeks post baseline
6-weeks post baseline
Psychological functioning on Work and Social Adjustment Scale at post-intervention
Time Frame: 6-weeks post baseline
6-weeks post baseline
Psychological functioning on Work and Social Adjustment Scale at 6-month follow-up
Time Frame: 6-months post end-of-intervention
6-months post end-of-intervention
Psychological distress on K10 at 6-month follow-up
Time Frame: 6-months post end-of-intervention
6-months post end-of-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Orygen

Collaborators

National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia
University of Melbourne
Sidney Myer Fund

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Anthony F Jorm, PhD, DSc, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, The University of Melbourne
  • Principal Investigator: Andrew J Mackinnon, PhD, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, The University of Melbourne

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

Helpful Links

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

November 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 19, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 20, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

July 21, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 11, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 9, 2013

Last Verified

December 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 0931313

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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