Does Adding a Tailored Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Mobile Skills App Mediate Rates of Depression

Depression Clinical Trial

— CBT Mobile-V  

Official title:

Does Adding a Tailored Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Mobile Skills App Mediate Higher Rates of Depression Recovery, Adjustment, and Quality of Life inOEF/OIF Veterans Compared to Standard CBT?

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04002063
• Other study ID #: D2908-R
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 10, 2022
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: VA Office of Research and Development
• Contact: Kathleen M Parks
• Phone: (412) 360-2396
• Email: Kathleen.Parks[@]va.gov
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Depression is a common psychological disorder seen in 18.5% of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) Veterans. Improving the rate of depression recovery and remission is vital to enhance OEF/OIF/OND Veteran's ability to improve work and home adjustment and overall quality of life. OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have reported many barriers to following through with Cognitive therapy skills practice assignments, a key component of CBT therapy, the leading therapy for depression in the VA. Smartphone apps have been identified as a useful widely-used tool to improve the effectiveness of psychological treatments. The investigators propose a full-scale multi-site randomized clinical trial (RCT) to measure the efficacy of CBT-D enhanced with CBT MobileWork-V, a comprehensive CBT skill training smartphone app (the experimental arm) for improving CBT understanding and skill acquisition and depressive symptoms, in OEF/OIF Veterans with depression compared to standard CBT-D.

Description:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the leading evidence-based psychotherapy for depression, which affects 18.5% of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) Veterans (hereafter referred to as OEF/OIF). Yet, OEF/OIF Veterans had only a 30% average reduction in mean depression scores from the initial to later phase of treatment. This was true despite the rigorous training and certification procedures for VA CBT-D. Improving the rate of depression recovery and remission is vital to enhance OEF/OIF Veteran's ability to improve work and home adjustment and overall quality of life. Broad access to all key ingredients of CBT, including skills practice (homework), is associated with improved and faster recovery from depression. OEF/OIF Veterans and patients with depression have reported many barriers (i.e., time, chaotic lifestyles, and low energy) to following through with their skills practice assignments. In the absence of targeted strategies/interventions to address the barriers that prevent CBT skills practice, OEF/OIF Veterans will remain unable to reap the full benefits/effects of CBT. With specific tailored interventions to address this gap in treatment, OEF/OIF Veterans will improve rates of recovery from depression, diminished home and work adjustment, and poor quality of life. Leveraging the technological savvy of this generation of Veterans to improve access to CBT skills practice is a logical tactic to address this gap in treatment. Smartphone apps have been identified as a useful widely-used tool to improve the effectiveness of psychological treatments. There is, however, a paucity of empirical studies on the use of mobile apps in the treatment of depressed OEF/OIF Veterans and in psychological treatment overall. The promising pilot results of a comprehensive tailored smartphone app for CBT skills practice for OEF/OIF Veterans ("CBT MobileWork-V"), provides initial evidence for a larger-scale randomized clinical trial (RCT) to measure the efficacy of CBT enhanced with CBTMobileWork-V (the experimental arm) for improving CBT understanding and skill acquisition and depressive symptoms, in OEF/OIF Veterans with depression compared to standard CBT-D. Specifically, over a 27-month period the study will randomize 268 eligible OEF/OIF Veterans with depressive symptoms, to either CBT augmented with the comprehensive CBT skill training smartphone app CBT MobileWork-V or standard CBT-D with traditional skills practice methods (i.e., paper and pencil). The Specific Aims of this study are: Primary Aim 1) To assess whether CBT-D augmented with CBT MobileWork-V (hereafter referred to as CBT-D+) promotes greater CBT understanding and skill acquisition compared to traditional CBT-D. Primary Aim 2a) To examine the short-term effect in depressive symptoms after 12 weeks of CBT-D+ versus standard CBT-D. Primary Aim 2b) To examine the long-term effect in depressive symptoms at 6 months post treatment of the CBT-D+ intervention versus traditional CBT-D.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 268
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 70 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Veteran of OEF/OIF/OND deployments
• Depressive severity of at least 10 on the PHQ-9 at screening (Patient may also have a DSM-5 56 diagnosis of unipolar Major Depression; PTSD; any anxiety disorder; substance/alcohol abuse; or adjustment disorder)
• Ability to read at the eighth grade level and to provide informed consent
• Patients may be taking antidepressants or antianxiety medications where dose has been stable for at least 4 weeks prior to screening evaluation
• Must have an Android smartphone
• Must be willing to be audio-taped for fidelity ratings

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizo-affective, bipolar, or other psychotic disorder
• Serious suicidal risk (Patient responds positively to PHQ-9 question #9) See B.3.4.1.
• Severe PTSD (Score greater than 51 on PTSD Checklist for DSM-5)
• Severe substance or alcohol dependence (meets DSM-5 criteria of severe)

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Depression
• Depressive Disorder

Intervention

Behavioral:
• CBT MobileWork-V plus CBT
a smartphone app to assist with CBT homework skills practice plus CBT
• CBT alone
CBT therapy individual

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Rehabilitation R&D Service, Baltimore, MD	Baltimore	Maryland
United States	Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL	Chicago	Illinois
United States	Coatesville VA Medical Center, Coatesville, PA	Coatesville	Pennsylvania
United States	VA North Texas Health Care System Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX	Dallas	Texas
United States	Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI	Milwaukee	Wisconsin
United States	Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN	Minneapolis	Minnesota
United States	Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania
United States	VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System University Drive Division, Pittsburgh, PA	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania
United States	Washington DC VA Medical Center, Washington, DC	Washington	District of Columbia

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
VA Office of Research and Development	Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Skills of Cognitive Therapy (Patient Version) Change	8-item self-report (patient version) and therapist-rated instrument of a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from (never) to 5 (always or when needed) assesses patients understanding and use of basic CBT skills.	baseline, week 12, and month 9
Secondary	Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Change	9-item questionnaire scoring the DSM-IV criteria for depression as not at all (0) to nearly every day (3); scores of 1 to 4 indicate minimal symptoms while 20 indicates severe depression	baseline and weekly up to 12 weeks