Online Positive Emotion Skills Intervention for Symptoms of Depression (MARIGOLD)

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Psychological Stress; Affect; Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Positive Affect Skills Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01964820

UCSF CHR 13-12256

Details and patient eligibility

About

Major depressive disorder affects over 120 million people worldwide. Only 50% of Americans with depression receive adequate treatment, and one-third of those receiving treatment do not benefit. In this pilot project investigators will bring together two approaches that have the promise to reach large numbers of depression sufferers: a skills-based intervention for increasing positive affect and experiences in depressed individuals, delivered in an inexpensive self-paced mobile format. The study will make use of smartphone technology to improve conventional outcome measurement via in-the-moment emotion sampling and mobile assessment of heart rate variability, a predictor of cardiac health that may mediate some of the health effects of depression. The aims are: 1) Retool the existing web-based positive emotion intervention for use on smartphones, with innovative exercises that help participants bring the skills they are learning into real- life situations; 2) Measure heart rate variability and emotions using existing smartphone software; and 3) Perform a randomized pilot trial of the mobile intervention on individuals with clinical depression recruited online.

Enrollment: 95 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Daily internet access
• Cell phone ownership
• Score of 10 or greater on the PHQ-8 depression scale

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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95 participants in 2 patient groups

Positive affect skills intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants receive a 5-week intervention providing training in 8 skills for generating positive affect.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive Affect Skills Training

Emotion reporting

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants report emotions on the same regular basis as intervention participants, but receive no intervention.