Using a Smartphone App to Target Current Mental Health Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

Trustees of Dartmouth College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cancer; Depression; Anxiety

Treatments: Other: Mood Triggers App

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06037382

STUDY00032649

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is a prevention intervention study that will examine the efficacy of a smartphone-based intervention in decreasing cancer risk by targeting mental health risk factors of anxiety and depression.

Full description

This prevention intervention study aims to examine the efficacy of a smartphone-based intervention in decreasing cancer risk by targeting mental health risk factors of anxiety and depression. The study will utilize a smartphone application called Mood Triggers, designed to provide personalized feedback on individuals' maintenance factors (i.e., "triggers") of their anxiety and depressive symptoms. Mood Triggers delivers ultra-brief interventions (less than 2 minutes long) where participants view videos introducing important skills to treat their anxiety and depression. The study targets middle-aged adults (40-64 years old) who meet current criteria for moderate to severe anxiety and/or depressive disorders. It will enroll an anticipated 100 participants in a single-group, open-label design, with the intervention lasting up to 12 weeks. The primary outcomes include changes in depression and anxiety symptoms, measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-Q-IV Scale, respectively, as well as changes in cancer risk assessed by the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research Cancer Prevention Score.

Enrollment: 102 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 64 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64).
2. fluent in English.
3. Able to provide informed consent.
4. Meets current criteria for an anxiety and/or depressive disorder with severity ranging from moderate to severe (based on the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire).
5. Owns a smartphone.

Exclusion criteria

1. Acute psychosis (based on the self-reported Structured Interview for Psychosis risk Syndromes, Prodromal Questionnaire - Brief version [SIPS PQ-B]).
2. Moderate to high suicidal ideation (based on a response of 2 or more on the PHQ-9 item-9).
3. History of bipolar disorder (based on the self-reported Mood Disorder Questionnaire [MDQ].
4. Past or current diagnoses of cancer.
5. Changes to treatments or medications in the past 30 days.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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102 participants in 1 patient group

MoodTriggers App

Experimental group

Description:

Mood Triggers provides personalized feedback on individuals' maintenance factors (i.e., "triggers") of their anxiety and depressive symptoms based on the theory that such feedback will lead to symptom reduction. Mood Triggers delivers ultra-brief interventions (less than 2 minutes long) where participants view videos which introduce an important skill to treat their anxiety and depressive.

Treatment:

Other: Mood Triggers App