Mental Imagery and Psychological Well-being

University of Liege

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Anhedonia; Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Control condition (activity planification); Behavioral: Mental Imagery

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05771636

1959-827

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to investigate the effects of mental imagery practice on depression, behavioral activation, psychological well-being and other processes involved in depression such as anhedonia.

We use a multiple baseline design in addition to a pre-post and follow-up standardized assessment design.

Full description

The purpose of this study is to determine if daily practice of mental imagery improves psychological variables such as motivation, behavioral activation, depression, mood, optimism, anhedonia, and psychological well-being, and if it's combination with activity planning is more effective than activity planning alone. This study will analyze the effect of 2 mental imagery conditions (planned activity imagery, best possible self) and a control condition of activity planning alone, administered to a general population over a 2-week period.

Our hypotheses are an improvement for both experimental conditions (planned activities imagery and best possible self imagery) of mood, behavioral activation, depressive symptomatology, optimism, psychological well-being, cognitive and behavioral avoidance, and anhedonia, compared to the control condition. Several studies have been able to show the effect of either imagery condition on certain variables (notably behavioral activation and mood for the planned activity imagery as well as optimism and mood for the best possible self), but the interest of our study is to assess the effect of each of the proposed protocols on a broader range of variables. This will allow us to determine the specific effect of each protocol as well as to compare their effectiveness.

In this study we will recruit 120 participants, randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) mental imagery of planned activities, (2) mental imagery of best possible self, (3) planned activity control group. All participants will be asked to complete a series of standardized assessments in 4 steps (at the first meeting, at the second meeting 15 days later, and a follow-up at 1 and 3 months post-intervention). The questionnaires will assess depression, behavioral activation, mood, optimism, imagery skills, anhedonia, and psychological well-being.

In each group, participants will have to think about 4 activities to be implemented within the next two weeks, and answer about 10 questions about the chosen activities (rated from 0 to 10 on a visual analogical scale). These questions evaluate, among other things, the motivation, the anticipated effort, the anticipated pleasure, and the degree of avoidance related to each activity using a visual analog scale. This questionnaire will be completed at the first meeting and also after the completion of each activity, at home. The protocol is identical for each condition except for the content of the imagery exercise or no imagery exercise for the control condition. The participants in the experimental conditions will be instructed to repeat the 5-minute imagery exercise at home every day for 2 weeks and report in a booklet everyday their rating of the imagery exercise (vividness, difficulty and their mood after the exercise).

At a second meeting 2 weeks later, all participants will be asked to complete the standardized assessments again and report whether or not the planned activities were completed, as well as conduct a semi-structured interview about their experience, the feasibility and difficulty of the task. Participants will then receive a follow-up survey by e-mail at 1 and 3 months post-intervention, in which they will again be asked to complete the selected standardized questionnaires. The booklets in which they reported the questionnaires about their planned activities (all conditions) and the ratings of imagery exercise (for experimental conditions) will be brought back on that meeting.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• At least some symptoms of depression (minimal score of 8 on the depression subscale of the HADS)

Exclusion criteria

• Not ongoing psychotherapy at the time of the study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 3 patient groups

Experimental G1 - imagery of planned activity

Experimental group

Description:

In this condition, the participant will have to think about 4 activities he will plan to do during the next 2 weeks. He will then complete a questionnaire about all the activities he identified and think about the major obstacle that could prevent him to do each activity, and a solution for each one. Then he will proceed to a mental imagery exercise where he imagines doing the activity as vividly as possible. He then will proceed to go home and repeat the imagery practice every day for the next two weeks, and do the planned activities. He will report in a booklet ratings of the mental imagery exercise and the activities he did.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mental Imagery

Experimental G2 - imagery of best possible self

Experimental group

Description:

In this condition, the participant will first have to do a mental imagery exercise where he imagines his best possible self, having accomplished all his big life goals, as vividly as possible. He will then have to think about 4 activities he will plan to do during the next 2 weeks, in line with the imagery exercise. He will then complete a questionnaire about all the activities he identified. He then will proceed to go home and repeat the imagery practice every day for the next two weeks, and do the planned activities. He will report in a booklet ratings of the mental imagery exercise and the activities he did.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mental Imagery

Control G3 - activity planification alone

Active Comparator group

Description:

In this condition, the participant will have to think about 4 activities he will plan to do during the next 2 weeks. He will then complete a questionnaire about all the activities he identified. There is no mental imagery exercise in this condition. He then will proceed to go home and receive the assignment to do the planned activities in the course of the next two weeks. He will report in a booklet ratings of the activities he did.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control condition (activity planification)