Kognitive Verhaltenstherapie für Depressionen und Angstzustände bei perinatalen Eltern

Participants in the current study will be perinatal parents experiencing symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. All participants will have access to 5 ICBT lessons released gradually over 8 weeks. The 5 ICBT lessons target challenges and symptoms of anxiety and depression in perinatal parents and focus on: 1) symptom identification and the cognitive behavioural model; 2) thought monitoring and challenging; 3) de-arousal strategies and pleasant activity scheduling; 4) graduated exposure; and 5) relapse prevention. Materials are text-based with visual images, and are presented as slideshows, stories, homework reflections, and additional resources.

The Wellbeing Course for New and Expecting Parents (WCNEP) is an adaptation of the Wellbeing Course (developed and evaluated at Macquaire University, Australia) and the Wellbeing Course for New Moms (a Canadian adaptation of the Wellbeing Course for new moms). The WCNEP is a transdiagnostic ICBT intervention designed for perinatal parents experiencing depression and/or anxiety, and will be offered by the Online Therapy Unit, a unit providing routine care ICBT services in Canada. The WCNEP will be evaluated in phases; phase 1 will evaluate the course for birthing parents only and phase 2 will evaluate the course for birthing and non-birthing parents. Therapist support will be offered for 8 weeks, with the possibility to extend the support to 12 weeks. Therapists will spend ~15 minutes/week communicating with each client, via secure messages. Phone calls will only be made if there is a significant clinical issue requiring attention that the therapist feel cannot be addressed in messages.

Tracking the change in depression symptoms. 10 items are measured on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0-3. Scores are summed with total scores ranging from 0 to 30. Higher scores are associated with higher depression severity.

Tracking the change in anxiety symptoms. 7 items are measured on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0-3. Scores are summed into a total score ranging from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating more severe self-reported levels of anxiety.

Tracking the change in postnatal birthing parents' bonding with their baby. 10 items are measured on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1-5. Scores are summed into a total score ranging from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating greater self-reported difficulties in bonding with baby. Administered to postnatal parents only.

Measures loneliness. 3 items are measured on a 3-point Likert scale ranging from 1-3. Scores are summed into a total score ranging from 3 to 9, with higher scores indicating higher levels of perceived loneliness.

A 12-item measure with three subscales measuring perceived social support from friends, family and significant other. Each subscale contains 4-items. Items on each subscale are measured on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1-7. Subscale scores range from 4 to 28 each, with higher scores indicating greater perceived social support in each category. Global scores range from 12 to 84, with higher scores indicating greater perceived social support overall.

Measures clients' week-to-week experience in the Wellbeing Course for New and Expecting Parents, and feedback on patient stories. This 10-item measure has been developed by the research team, and contains three subscales. Three items measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1-7 will be summed into a total score between 3 to 21 to reflect engagement with the treatment, with higher scores indicating greater engagement. Four items (three measured on an 8-point Likert scale ranging from 0-7, and one measured on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 0-5) will be summed into a total score between 0 to 26 to reflect engagement with patient stories over the past week. Higher scores indicate greater engagement with patient stories. The remaining three items do not have a sum scores, and are used to inquire about which lesson and resources clients worked on, and client success and challenges over the previous week.

A 15-item questionnaire used to assess satisfaction with treatment and negative effects experienced by clients during treatment. The questionnaire utilizes a combination of Likert-scale (5-point (0-4)and 6-point (0-5) ), open-ended, and dichotomous yes/no response options to gauge participants' perception of the course. The questionnaire has been developed by the research team and does not have scoring at this time.

A 4-item measure of clients' opinions of and satisfaction with the 11 additional resources offered alongside the Wellbeing Course for New and Expecting Parents. The questionnaire utilizes a combination of dichotomous yes/no (1-item), checklist (2-items), and open-ended (1-item) response option to understand which additional resources participants reviewed and their perception of the resources. The questionnaire was developed by the research team and no score is calculated or created.

Measures treatment credibility and expectancy using 6 items, with two subscales. Each subscale contains 3-items. The first three items of the scale (credibility subscale) are measured on a 1-9 point Likert scale, with scores ranging from 3 to 27 on this subscale. The three items of the expectancy subscale are measured on a 9-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 9. These items are summed to produce a subscale score ranging from 1 to 27. Higher scores in each sub-scale indicate greater treatment credibility or treatment expectancy respectively.

A semi-structured interview to gather feedback on the treatment and specific treatment components (i.e., patient stories). The number of participants to be interviewed will be determined based on the saturation of themes yielded within preliminary qualitative analyses. The semi-structured interview questions were developed by the research team.