Effectiveness of an Online Psychoeducation Program for Improving Coping in People With a High Level of Dissociative Symptoms: A Pilot Randomized Waitlist-controlled Trial

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dissociation

Treatments: Behavioral: Online psychoeducational program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05519748

6906334

Details and patient eligibility

About

Subject Population Our study's target population is people with pathological dissociation in the community.

Research Design A pilot randomized waitlist-controlled trial will investigate the effects of an online psychoeducation program on coping, symptom management, and self-efficacy of people with pathological dissociation immediately (posttest-1) and 2-month (posttest-2) post-intervention. Supplementary semi-structured interviews will be conducted for process evaluation. The analysis and reporting of the trial will strictly follow the CONSORT guidelines.

Instrument The primary outcome of our study is the coping ability of individuals with pathological dissociation, which will be assessed by the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief-COPE). The secondary outcome measures are dissociative symptoms, emotional regulation, and self-efficacy, which would be assessed by the Dissociative Experiences Scale-Taxon (DES-T), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) accordingly.

Procedure The online psychoeducation program is developed based on an integrative theoretical framework that integrates the Stress and Coping model, Cognitive-Behavioural Theory, Bandura's self-efficacy theory, and findings of our previous feasibility studies on this psychoeducational program. Participants will be recruited via posting on social media and online forums. A 16-session online psychoeducation program will be delivered to the participants in eight weeks.

Enrollment: 101 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 64 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• agree to give informed consent and participate
• aged 18 or above
• self-reported symptoms or experiences of pathological dissociation
• screened positive on the Chinese version of the DES-T (i.e., DES-T score 20 or above) at a baseline screening
• able to understand and communicate in Chinese-Cantonese
• have access to the internet.

Exclusion criteria

• Individuals who have a reading disorder, cognitive impairment, dementia, or intellectual disabilities
• Individuals who are participating in any research studies
• Individuals who had participated in our previous feasibility study of the same intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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101 participants in 2 patient groups

Online psychoeducational program

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will receive an online psychoeducational program for 8 weeks. The psychoeducation package consists of 16 different sets of reading materials and post-session writing/reflection exercises, which will be delivered to the participants twice a week. The program is designed to be a brief, trauma-informed, dissociation-focused education package that aims to enable users to better understand and cope with their post-traumatic and dissociative reactions and related life challenges. There are specific psychoeducation elements in each session, such as: (1) safety issues planning, (2) understanding the impacts of trauma and stress, (3) understanding the concept of dissociation and integration of the personality, (4) identifying and coping with the post-traumatic and dissociative symptoms, (5) identifying trauma-related cognitive distortions.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Online psychoeducational program

Waitlist control

Other group

Description:

The waitlist control group will receive an online psychoeducational program for 8 weeks a week after the completion of the two-month follow-up in the intervention group. The psychoeducation package is identical to the program in the intervention group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Online psychoeducational program