The MyMood&Me Project: Using text data to infer mental health

The MyMood&Me experimental pilot aims to explore the role of text data for producing reliable and valid linguistic markers of depression and anxiety among adults with mental illness. Over 9 weeks (i.e., 63 days total: 56 days of intervention, +7 days to complete final endpoint survey), participants will be randomly allocated to receive a random sequence of four repetitive stimulated writing tasks, and a set sequence of four one-off stimulated writing tasks. The total intensity and frequency of writing tasks will be the same for all participants; however, the order in which the repetitive tasks are completed will be different. There are four intervention periods in the current study, each lasting 14 days, with two types of writing tasks scheduled in each intervention period. All the scheduled writing tasks and surveys will be delivered online via a website on the Black Dog Institute Research Engine. Participants will also be asked to complete five fortnightly mental health surveys on days 1, 14, 28, 42, 56 (i.e., at the beginning of each 14-day intervention period). The mental health survey includes standardised, self-reported psychometric scales for depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale -7). At baseline only, participants will complete demographics questionnaires, motivations for participation, and a short, validated screener for personality disorders. At baseline and final endpoint, participants will complete the rumination and mastery questionnaires. The survey will take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Each survey will stay open for 48 hours. Participants will receive an initial invitation (via email and SMS) to complete, followed by two reminders (sent via email and SMS). The one-off writing tasks will be scheduled to be completed at the same time as the corresponding fortnightly mental health survey (i.e., on days 14, 28, 42 and 56). The writing task will be administered first to reduce any carryover effect of the symptom scales. There is no washout period as there is nil to limited evidence of a carryover effect for the proposed writing interventions. The one-off writing tasks used in the trial include 1) a personal writing task in which participants are instructed to write about their physical and personality traits, their hobbies, etc, (Task W) 2) a neutral writing task where participants will be instructed to write about how they spend time with their friends (Task X), 3) a narrative imagery task where participants will be instructed to write what they think is happening in the provided image (Task Y), and 4) a holidaying letter to a friend in which participants are asked imagine they're on holiday and writing a letter to their friend to convince them to come over (Task Z). Participants will be advised to allocate at least 5 minutes to each one-off writing task. The order of the one-off writing tasks will be set for all participants (i.e., Task WXYZ) and will stay open for 48 hours. As it forms part of the fortnightly mental health survey, participants will receive an initial invitation (via email and SMS) to complete, followed by two reminders (sent via email and SMS to non-completers). The total duration of the fortnightly mental health survey + the one-off writing task will take an estimated 15 minutes to complete, with participants able to take longer if they wish. The repetitive stimulated writing tasks are scheduled to be delivered on a set sequence/schedule in the 14-day intervention period. Repetitive writing tasks used in this trial include 1) SMS retrieval (Task A), 2) a social media task (Task B), 3) an emotion diary (Task C), and 4) an anchored negative event task (task D). For the SMS retrieval task, participants will be asked to retrieve a recent private message, this request will be sent every 2 days for a total of 5 SMS requests. The social media task asks participants to write a hypothetical post on social media, this request will be sent every 3 days for a total of 4 written social media posts. The emotion diary task asks participants to write about an event that impacted their mood, this request will be sent every 4 days for a total of 3 diary entries. Lastly, the anchored negative task will ask participants to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings on an extremely important emotional issue that has affected them and their life. This task will be asked every 4 days for a total of 3 anchored negative event requests. The mood monitoring questionnaire will be delivered prior to, and immediately after, each emotion diary task and negatively anchored writing tasks to monitor any impacts on individuals’ mood. Participants will be advised to allocate 5 minutes to each of the scheduled writing tasks. Each task will remain open for 24 hours, with participants receiving 3 invitations to complete (initial invitation sent in the AM, two reminders sent to non-completers in the PM). Adherence to the writing tasks will not be monitored throughout the study period. Participants will receive scheduled reminders (up to 3) to complete the writing tasks and surveys. An acceptability questionnaire will be delivered after participants complete each writing task for the first time (i.e, total of 8 acceptability questionnaires) to measure the level of acceptability for each task.