Brief Videos Delivered by Text Messages as a Public Health Intervention for PTSD in Youth

IWK Health Centre

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Youth; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Adolescence

Treatments: Behavioral: Brief Videos Delivered by Text Message

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07165782

1031707

FDN148371 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if informational videos (the intervention) sent by text messages can help young people (age 15 - 25) manage symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is a small-scale trial to evaluate whether the intervention has potential to be effective, whether it is feasible to carry out a bigger study, and whether youth find the intervention acceptable.The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does the intervention help youth reduce their symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression, improve how well they function day-to-day, and lead to post-traumatic growth.
2. Will it be possible to conduct a larger study on the intervention (e.g., are we able to attract participants to take part in the study; do participants follow through with the intervention and the study) and is the intervention acceptable to youth (e.g., do they watch the videos, and rate the videos as useful, interesting, understandable, and relevant)?

Researchers will compare those who receive the intervention right away to those who wait to receive the intervention to see if there are differences between groups.

Videos will teach youth about PTSD and provide the opportunity to practice strategies that have been shown to help with reduce symptoms of PTSD, such as exposure, reducing avoidance, social support, and coping strategies (e.g., changing your thoughts, deep breathing, and muscle relaxation).

The study is fully online. Participants will be randomly placed in one of two groups:

1. Intervention Group: Gets three PTSD-related text messages per week for 10 weeks. They will also be asked to rate each of the videos on how helpful you found them.
2. Waitlist Group: Does not receive text messages until AFTER the final surveys for the study are completed (i.e., 5 months), then will receive the intervention.

Everyone will be asked to complete online surveys about their mental health and functioning 3 times during the study:

• Beginning of the study
• 10 weeks into the study
• 3 months after the videos end (end of study)

Enrollment: 98 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15 to 25 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Likely diagnosis of PTSD as indicated by a minimum score of 31 on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist
• Direct exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence or through witnessing, learning it happened to a close relation as assessed by the Life Events Checklist
• Between 15 and 25 years old at time of enrolment
• Access to a mobile phone and a data plan that allows them to receive text messages and videos
• Live in Canada

Exclusion criteria

• Presence of active suicidality, determined by items from the Patient Safety Screener
• Active symptoms of psychosis, indicated by a brief Psychosis Screener Questionnaire
• An inability to read and/or understand English

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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98 participants in 2 patient groups

Brief Video Intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will receive three text messages per week for 10 weeks. Each message contains a link to a video providing information about PTSD and coping strategies.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Brief Videos Delivered by Text Message

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will receive no intervention. They will have access to the intervention after they complete all study activities, however they will not be included in the data analysis.