The Effect of a Brief Online Behavioral Activation Intervention

The Effect of a Brief Online Behavioral Activation Intervention by Activity Type

Depression is a worldwide phenomena that has a severe personal, social and societal impact. One such impact is an over $200 billion worldwide economic cost. While many treatments exist for depression, many individuals may not receive the support that they need for reasons such as stigma, financial restraints, or limited access to therapists. As such, it is important to assess the efficacy of brief online treatments as an alternative to full length, in-person treatments. A series of studies looking at a brief behavioral activation for depression treatment has shown that participants have reported temporarily improved mood, confidence, motivation and reduced depressive symptoms. It is important to test this treatment in multiple groups of people to acquire additional information regarding brief online interventions. This study seeks to collect participants from online social media sources and compare results to historical data that were collected from a prior research study which used Amazon Mechanical Turk as a recruitment source.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Behavioral Activation

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 106
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304
      • Online Recruitment/Palo Alto University Campus

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older
• United States Resident

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-US resident
• Younger than 18 years old

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Behavioral Activation Intervention; All individuals enrolled in the study will be assigned to this arm and will receive a brief behavioral activation psychoeducation module among other self-report assessments.	Behavioral: Behavioral Activation; Individuals will be provided with information about maladaptive patterns of behavior and how to correct these cycles with activity scheduling to elicit more positive emotional experiences. Participants will be provided with categories/lists of activities and a downloadable calendar after receiving the psychoeducation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Depression level	Changes in depression score as measured by the PROMIS scale. The PROMIS is scored on a 5-point Likert scale with responses 1 to 5 corresponding to Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, and Always respectively.	3 days
Self-reported mood	Changes in mood as measured by a self-reported mood question. This measure is scored on a 9-point Likert scale (1 = Extremely Negative to 9 = Extremely Positive)	3 days
Daily Enjoyment	Changes in enjoyment as measured by a self-reported question around daily enjoyment. This measure is scored on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all to 9 = Extremely)	At time of original survey

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Confidence, Motivation, and Usefulness	Changes in confidence, motivation, and usefulness are measured with single self-reported measures for confidence, motivation, and usefulness of the intervention. They are rated on a 9 point Likert scale (1 = Extremely Negative to 9 = Extremely Positive)	3 days

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Palo Alto University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 24, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 20, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): April 18, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 2, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 12, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): June 22, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 22, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 12, 2023
• Last Verified: June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Depression
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2021-082

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No