Brief Mood Enhancement Intervention

Duke University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Stress, Psychological

Treatments: Behavioral: Reward; Behavioral: Approach

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02954965

PRO00074337

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the current study is to test the efficacy of two brief, behavioral interventions intended to improve burnout among doctoral-level graduate students (n = 102). Specifically, individuals will be randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: 1) Reward: a brief intervention to help participants increase engagement in healthy and rewarding values-driven behaviors, 2) Approach: a brief intervention to help participants identify and decrease emotion-driven avoidance of important goals, or 3) Control: a control condition that involves monitoring only. Multilevel modeling will be used to assess changes in burnout, mood, and stress, following the interventions, controlling for participants' individual baseline levels of these variables.

Enrollment: 66 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Currently enrolled in any in-person (not online) Ph.D. program in the state of North Carolina
• Demonstrating above average levels of burnout
• Has regular access to the Internet
• Has a Social Security Number
• Is able to read and understand English

Exclusion criteria

• Current mania or psychosis
• Current suicidal ideation
• Are currently in psychotherapy, have been in psychotherapy in the past 8 weeks, or are planning to start psychotherapy during the course of the 10-day study
• Have had any changes in psychiatric medications in the past 8 weeks, are not taking medications as prescribed or are planning to change medications during the course of the 10-day study
• Are currently taking benzodiazepines Pro Re Nata (PRN)
• Are under 18 years old

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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66 participants in 3 patient groups

Reward

Experimental group

Description:

A brief, phone-administered intervention designed to help graduate students increase the number of pleasant and rewarding activities in their daily lives.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Reward

Approach

Experimental group

Description:

A brief, phone-administered intervention designed to help graduate students block procrastination and avoidance and to approach important activities they are currently avoiding.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Approach

Monitoring

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will monitor their current behaviors, mood, and burnout with no directed intervention to change behavior