Comparison of Positive Psychotherapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy for Depression

Depression Clinical Trial

Official title:

Evaluation of the Positive Psychotherapy to Reduce Symptoms and to Promote Happiness With Depressive Patients Compared to Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02572921
• Other study ID #: USalzburg
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: September 15, 2015
• Last updated: October 8, 2015
• Start date: May 2014
• Est. completion date: July 2016

Study information

• Verified date: October 2015
• Source: University of Salzburg
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Austria: Ethikkommission des Landes OÖ, Ethikkommission der Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study evaluates the effects of the Positive Psychotherapy on depressive symptoms and on happiness compared with regular cognitive behavioral therapy.

Description:

Positive Psychotherapy (PPT) focuses on increasing well-being and positive emotions rather than ameliorating deficits in contrast to standard psychotherapy.

A lack of positive emotions, engagement and felt meaning are typically viewed as consequences or mere correlates of depression, while the PPT suggests that these may be causal for depression. Therefore building positive emotion, engagement and meaning will alleviate depression.

Thus PPT may offer a new way to treat and prevent depression.

The aim of this study is to compare the effects of the Positive Psychotherapy on depressive symptoms, life satisfaction and happiness in comparison to standard cognitive behavior psychotherapy (regular cognitive behavioral therapy).

60 mildly to moderately depressed patients are randomly assigned to the Positive Psychotherapy group or the regular cognitive behavioral therapy group.

Both treatments (primary intervention group and control group) are conducted in an outpatient group therapy setting with 14 sessions and a duration of 2-hours-per-week in small groups of 6 or 7 patients.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 60
• Est. completion date: July 2016
• Est. primary completion date: May 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years to 60 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Clinical diagnosis of Depression (Major depressive disorder, recurrent: mild to moderate; Major depressive disorder, single episode: mild to moderate; Dysthymic disorder)

• Patients should be between age 18 and 60

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any current treatment for depression

• Substance related or alcohol related disorder (within the last 12 months)

• Panic disorder

• Manic or hypomanic disorder

• Psychotic disorder * refusal to participate in a 14 weeks psychotherapy treatment

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Factorial Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Depression
• Depressive Disorder

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Positive Psychotherapy
The Positive Psychotherapy Group Treatment was developed by Martin Seligman and Tayyab Rashid (2013) and consists of 14 weekly group sessions of 2 hours. The strictly manualized program includes the following components: positive orientation and introduction, character strengths, signature strengths, good vs. bad memories, forgiveness, gratitude, satisficing vs. maximising, meaningful life, posttraumatic growth, hope and optimism, positive communication, signature strengths of others, savouring and slowness, altruism and the last session is about the integration of all these components to the "full life".
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
This well-established, cognitive-behavior group therapy was developed by Schaub, Roth and Goldmann (2006) and consists of 12 weekly group sessions of 2 hours. The strictly manualized program includes the following components: education, building up activities, cognitive restructuring, relapse prevention. Moreover, there are 2 sessions added to the standard program: one session concerning savouring and the other one concerning stress reduction. Thus the whole program consists of 14 sessions.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Austria	Wagner-Jauregg- Hospital	Linz	Upper Austria
Austria	Beratungsstelle für Klinische Psychologie, Psychotherapie und Gesundheitspsychologie	Salzburg

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Salzburg	The Wagner-Jauregg Provincial Neuropsychiatric Clinic

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Austria, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Depressive symptoms (measured by a self-report questionnaire)	The depressive symptoms will be assessed by a self - report questionnaire: the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) which consists of 21 items	fourteen weeks	No
Primary	Depressive symptoms (measured by an assessment by others)	The depressive symptoms will also be measured by an assessment by others: the Montgomery Asberg Depression Scale (MADS) which consists of 10 items	fourteen weeks	No
Primary	Happiness (measured by a self-report-questionnaire)	Happiness will be assessed by a self-report-scale: the Flourishing-Scale (FS) which consists of 8 items	fourteen weeks	No
Primary	Happiness (measured by a self-report questionnaire)	Happiness will be assessed by an additional self-report-questionnaire which consists of 25 items: the Positive Psychotherapy Inventory (PPTI)	fourteen weeks	No
Primary	Life satisfaction (measured by a self-report questionnaire)	Life-Satisfaction will be measured by a self-report-questionnaire consisting of 5 items: the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)	fourteen weeks	No
Secondary	Clinical Symptoms	Apart from depression also other clinical symptoms will be assessed by a self-report-scale with 53 items: the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)	fourteen weeks	No
Secondary	Life events	Also life events will be assessed which happened during the last 6 months before starting the treatment and during the treatment	six months	No