The Effect of Emotional Working Memory Training on Preventing Depression Occurrence

Hunan Normal University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Depressive Symptoms

Treatments: Behavioral: maintaining positive working memory training; Behavioral: Positive placebo ABMT; Behavioral: repressing negative working memory training; Behavioral: Positive ABMT

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04346784

EMOTION2 2019

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to test whether emotional working memory training and attention bias modification training are an effective neurobehavioral therapy to prevent the occurrence of depression .That is whether emotional working memory training and attention bias modification training are superior to placebo in preventing the occurrence of depression over 1 year after training.

Full description

Attentional bias has been theorized to play a critical role in the onset and maintenance of depression. Attentional bias modification training (ABMT), an experimental paradigm that uses training to induce adaptive attentional bias, was developed to test the causal model and this has therapeutic implications in depression.To test the effect of ABMT on treatment of depressive symptoms, a randomized, double-blind, placebo and blank controlled trial is conducted in college students who are experiencing mild-to-severe symptoms of depression.

Enrollment: 110 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 16 to 21 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• A score of 14 or higher on the Beck Depression Inventory-II.

Exclusion criteria

• A current episode of MDD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or organic mental disorder;
• Any concurrent psychotherapy;
• Any concurrent psychotropic medication.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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110 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

maintaining positive working memory training

Experimental group

Description:

Maintaining positive working memory training is based on visual positive works n-back task.In this training, positive words are presented on the pictures of happy face.According to the rules, subjects are required to identify whether the word present currently is as the same type as the word presented n before then click the keys correspondingly.Each training session contains 15 blocks which are consisted with 20+n trails.

Treatment:

Behavioral: maintaining positive working memory training

repressing negative working memory training

Experimental group

Description:

Repressing negative working memory training is a dual n-back task containing visual and auditory stimulus.Both two types of stimulus are negative.In this training, subjects are required to identify whether the location of picture presented on the screen or the word appeared in the headphone is the same as the picture or the word presented n before, then react with typing correspondingly.Each training session contains 16 blocks which are consisted with 20+n trails.

Treatment:

Behavioral: repressing negative working memory training

Positive ABMT

Experimental group

Description:

In the positive attention bias, there are 54 pairs of neutral-negative words, 27 pairs of which are used in the training group and 27 pairs of which are used in the placebo group. The word pairs in each group are repeated 8 times, with a total of 216 trial.Participants received 10 sessions over 2 weeks. 90% of the targets in the training group appear in the positive word position and 10% of the targets appear in the neutral word position.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive ABMT

Positive placebo ABMT

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

In the positive attention bias, there are 54 pairs of neutral-negative words, 27 pairs of which are used in the training group and 27 pairs of which are used in the placebo group. The word pairs in each group are repeated 8 times, with a total of 216 trial.Participants received 10 sessions over 2 weeks. while 90% of the targets in the placebo group appear in the neutral word position and 10% of the targets appear in the positive word position.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive placebo ABMT