Mobile Apps for the Treatment of Depression

Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System

Status: Withdrawn

Conditions: Major Depressive Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Behavioral activation plus mobile app; Behavioral: Standard behavioral activation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT02024620

529128

Details and patient eligibility

About

Smartphone applications (apps) may be well-suited as a low cost adjunctive tool for increasing the adherence of individuals to psychotherapy treatments which may subsequently increase symptom reduction and improve clinical outcomes. Apps offer the opportunity for real-time tracking of behavior and have the ability to provide prompt feedback and reminders in a convenient, readily available technology. The immediacy and convenience of apps may be responsible for the observed improvements in adherence on the part of the patients relative to traditional paper-and-pencil tracking and practice of skills taught in psychotherapy. These features are relevant to behavioral activation (BA) protocols, the effects of which are often attenuated by failure to adhere to regular practice and tracking of behavior. The Mood Coach app is a BA protocol developed to provide a convenient means of planning and tracking activity, and monitoring mood responses to scheduled increases in activity. This project evaluates the utility of this app as an adjunct to standard BA treatment. The investigators predict that participants assigned to the BA+app condition will demonstrate greater adherence to the BA treatment compared to the standard BA condition. The investigators also predict that the participants in the BA+app condition will report greater satisfaction with the app compared to the standard BA protocol that utilizes paper and pencil materials.

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 89 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Veterans aged 18 and older
• Speak and understand English
• Meet criteria for major depressive disorder
• Willing to participate in psychotherapy for depression

Exclusion criteria

• Current psychotic disorder diagnosis
• Current bipolar disorder
• Diagnosed with a substance use disorder that is not currently being addressed by a non-study provider
• Patients receiving a concurrent evidence-based psychotherapy for depression or PTSD

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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0 participants in 2 patient groups

Behavioral activation plus mobile app

Experimental group

Description:

Standard behavioral activation protocol with the addition of the Mood Coach mobile app to replace the paper and pencil forms used in the standard protocol.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Behavioral activation plus mobile app

Standard behavioral activation

Active Comparator group

Description:

Standard behavioral activation protocol using paper and pencil forms for treatment delivery and homework completion.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Standard behavioral activation