Dysthymia: Associated Costs, Treatment and Change Process (DFront)

Modum Bad

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Cost Benefit Analysis; Psychotherapeutic Processes; Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Psychotherapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04911829

Depression Forefront

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study evaluates cost and effect of inpatient versus outpatient treatment of dysthymia, as well as investigates the processes through which psychotherapy works in treating dysthymia.

Full description

Inpatient treatment allows a more intensive treatment and allows the patient to be in a context where it is possible to focus on the processes in therapy with minimal interruption. Outpatient treatment is much less intensive but allows the treatment process to unfold in the context where the patient is experiencing the problems that brought them to therapy. It is not clear which of the contexts will be more effective in alleviating symptoms of dysthymia. Further, as dysthymia is a very costly disease for society it is of interest to know if the two treatments are cost-effective, and which one is the most cost effective.

A great paucity on dysthymia research ha left the psychotherapy field without an understanding of the processes through which dysthymia is changed. This study will investigate the change process through frequent assessments of common factors, psychological processes, symptoms, heart rate variability and cognitive attention bias.

Enrollment: 80 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Inclusion criteria will be liberal and similar to clinical practice criteria at the treatment site: Persistent depressive disorder as defined by the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM5); which includes an International classification of disorders-10 (ICD-10) diagnosis of depression, dysthymia, recurrent depression. unsuccessful previous treatments. living within driving distance from the treatment facilities.

Exclusion criteria

• current suicidal risk, current psychosis, marked emotional instability (i.e. issues with impulsivity), strong paranoid traits, current problems related to heavy substance abuse.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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80 participants in 2 patient groups

Inpatient treatment

Active Comparator group

Description:

High intensity high dosage inpatient short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychotherapy

Outpatient treatment

Experimental group

Description:

Low dosage outpatient short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychotherapy