CBT for depression: a pilot RCT comparing mobile phone vs. computer

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Sarah Watts¹  Anna Mackenzie¹  Al Griskaitis¹  Louise Mewton¹  Gavin Andrews¹  Alishia Williams¹  Cherian Thomas¹ 

[1] Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales at St Vincent’s Hospital, 394-404 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia;

关键词: Cognitive behavioural therapy;    Major depressive disorder;    Mobile app;    Internet treatment;    Treatment;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-13-49

 received in 2012-12-18, accepted in 2013-01-31,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThis paper reports the results of a pilot randomized controlled trial comparing the delivery modality (mobile phone/tablet or fixed computer) of a cognitive behavioural therapy intervention for the treatment of depression. The aim was to establish whether a previously validated computerized program (The Sadness Program) remained efficacious when delivered via a mobile application.Method35 participants were recruited with Major Depression (80% female) and randomly allocated to access the program using a mobile app (on either a mobile phone or iPad) or a computer. Participants completed 6 lessons, weekly homework assignments, and received weekly email contact from a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist until completion of lesson 2. After lesson 2 email contact was only provided in response to participant request, or in response to a deterioration in psychological distress scores. The primary outcome measure was the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9). Of the 35 participants recruited, 68.6% completed 6 lessons and 65.7% completed the 3-months follow up. Attrition was handled using mixed-model repeated-measures ANOVA.ResultsBoth the Mobile and Computer Groups were associated with statistically significantly benefits in the PHQ-9 at post-test. At 3 months follow up, the reduction seen for both groups remained significant.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence to indicate that delivering a CBT program using a mobile application, can result in clinically significant improvements in outcomes for patients with depression.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN 12611001257954

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Watts et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.