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Treatment of Depression and/or Anxiety - the Tree Theme Method® (TTM) as an Intervention

Treatment of Depression and/or Anxiety - a Randomized Clinical Trial of the Tree Theme Method® (TTM) as an Intervention

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT01980381
Enrollment
121
Registered
2013-11-11
Start date
2013-01-31
Completion date
2025-07-31
Last updated
2025-08-29

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anxiety, Depression

Brief summary

Depression and anxiety are among our most common diseases and the prevalence is increasing. When suffering from depression or anxiety, the individual's ability to cope with everyday life occupations is decreased, as well as the ability to relate to others. The Tree Theme Method® (TTM) is a treatment method. The purpose is to enhance the ability to develop strategies for occupations in everyday life and relationships with others. The method involves using creative activities to create a life story focusing on everyday occupations and to create an imagination of future possibilities/goals. The TTM is a short-term therapy with five sessions. The treatment also implies that the patient is asked to identify various homework tasks to perform between the sessions. The aim of the project is to investigate the effects of the TTM compared to a control group for people with depression and anxiety diagnosis. The intention is to examine the effect on outcome measures regarding psychological symptoms, everyday occupations and health. The study has been approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board. The project is a randomized multicenter study with an intervention group and a control group. A total of 130 patients will be included. Inclusion criteria are patients with depression and/or anxiety in the age of 18-65 years and who have problems with their everyday occupations. Exclusion criteria are individuals with a severe somatic illness or psychosis and/or who have difficulties to understand and fill out self-rating questionnaires. The project implies that doctors will refer appropriate patients to the occupational therapist. After informed consent each patient will be drawn to the TTM or control. Before and after the treatment, as well as 3 and 12 months after finished treatment the patient will meet a project assistant in order to respond to questionnaires regarding psychological symptoms, everyday occupations and health. The study is a collaborative project involving the Region Skåne, Kronoberg County Council, and Jönköping County Council. Doctors will recruit patients and occupational therapists will perform the treatment. The research team comprise of researchers from Kronoberg County Council (B Gunnarsson and K Hedin), Lund University (C Håkansson) and School of Health Sciences in Jönköping (P Wagman).

Interventions

OTHERTree Theme Method ® (TTM)

The TTM method is based on creative activities and occupational life story telling, implies that the paints trees representing different life periods, looking back and forward, as well as the present.

Sponsors

Kronoberg County Council
Lead SponsorOTHER_GOV

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Depression and/or anxiety in age of 18-65 years and problems with everyday occupations.

Exclusion criteria

* Severe somatic illness or psychosis and/or difficulties to understand and fill out self-rating questionnaires

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Psychological symptomsChange from baseline to after treatment (6-9 weeks), 3 and 12 monthsPsychological symptoms measured by the SCL-90-R(Derogatis, 1992) Depression measured by the MADRS-S(Montgomery & Åsberg, 1979) Anxiety/depression measured by the HAD(Zigmond & Snaith, 1983)

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Everyday occupationsChange from baseline, after treatment (6-9 weeks), and 3 and 12 monthsEveryday occupations measured by the Occupational performance and satisfaction with occupational performance measured (COPM)(Law et al., 1998), the Satisfaction with Daily occupations (SDO)(Eklund, 2004)and the Occupational balance (Wagman, Håkansson & Björklund, 2011).

Countries

Sweden

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Mar 15, 2026