Treating Depressed Mood With a Smartphone-delivered Positive Word Stimulation for Subthreshold Depression

Gunma University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Subthreshold Depression

Treatments: Device: Smartphone Application (YouTube); Device: Smartphone Application (SPSRS)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04707495

HS2020-157

Details and patient eligibility

About

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is an important public health problem. Thus, preventive interventions against subthreshold depression (StD), which is one of the key risk factors for the development of MDD, are important. The study developed a smartphone application (SPSRS) that improves depressive symptoms in people with StD by automatically presenting positive word stimuli during videos. The SPSRS application has the potential to improve depressive symptoms in people with StDs. However, whether it can immediately improve depressed moods in people with StD is unclear. The study aims to investigate the immediate effects of SPSRS applications on depressed mood in people with StD.

Enrollment: 32 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 39 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Male and female
2. 20 to 39 years old
3. Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) score of 10 points or more
4. Persons with written informed consent prior to participation

Exclusion criteria

1. History of mental illness
2. Currently receiving treatment from a professional for mental health issues
3. Vision or hearing problems that interfere with daily life.
4. With a major depressive episode in the last two weeks according to the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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32 participants in 2 patient groups

Smartphone Application (SPSRS)

Experimental group

Description:

The experimental group receives video-viewing intervention using the SPSRS application, which is a smartphone application. SPSRS is programmed to present 150 ms of positive words after presenting 17 ms of self-confidence-boosting words in videos. These words are repeated every 5 s. The words to increase self-confidence are "can," "let us try," "good luck," "able," and "do not worry". These self-confidence-boosting words randomly appear in the four corners of the screen. The positive words are "nice," "great," "fantastic," "satisfactory," and "enjoyable". These words are displayed at the center of the screen. Interveners use the SPSRS application according to the operating manual. The participants will use an iPhone managed by interveners to watch a pre-determined 10-minute video.

Treatment:

Device: Smartphone Application (SPSRS)

Smartphone Application (YouTube)

Active Comparator group

Description:

The control group uses the same iPhone as the experimental group. The control group uses the YouTube application to receive video-viewing intervention. The control group videos do not show confidence-boosting and positive words. The control group watches the same video as the experimental group for 10 min.

Treatment:

Device: Smartphone Application (YouTube)