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The Modular Protocol for Mental Health (MPMH)

The Modular Protocol for Mental Health (MPMH): A Pilot Randomised Clinical Trial of a Transdiagnostic Psychological Treatment for Mood and Anxiety Disorders in Adults

Status
Completed
Phases
Phase 1Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03143634
Acronym
MPMH
Enrollment
43
Registered
2017-05-08
Start date
2017-07-18
Completion date
2020-07-31
Last updated
2020-09-29

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

Conditions

Agoraphobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Illness Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder

Brief summary

Currently, our best psychological treatments for anxiety and mood disorders only focus on individual diagnoses. So, there are separate treatments for Panic Disorder, or Depressive Disorder, or Social Anxiety, etc. These 'diagnosis-specific' treatments work well for people whose problems fit neatly into a single diagnosis. However, they work far less well for people with complex problems involving multiple diagnoses, and 50% of patients fail to respond well to these existing treatments. The purpose of this study is to test a new psychological treatment for anxiety and mood problems (the Modular Protocol for Mental Health \[MPMH\]). Instead of focusing on any single diagnosis, MPMH combines the best treatment techniques into 10 modules to target problems common across all of the different mood and anxiety diagnoses (e.g., intense emotions, negative thinking, upsetting memories, distressing habits). MPMH should therefore be a better treatment for the large numbers of individuals whose problems do not fit neatly into a single diagnosis and for whom any treatments targeting a single diagnosis would leave significant difficulties unaddressed.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALThe Modular Protocol for Mental Health

This intervention is based on evidence-based cognitive-behavioural approaches to psychological disorders and offers a flexible approach to treatment delivery that targets the maladaptive processes common to mood and anxiety disorders.

BEHAVIORALTreatment-as-usual

This intervention will consist of psychological therapies delivered by high-intensity therapists or clinical psychologists.

Sponsors

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
CollaboratorOTHER
Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Lead SponsorOTHER_GOV

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Masking description

Only the outcome assessor will be masked, as this is a psychological intervention it is not possible to mask the participant, care provider or investigator.

Eligibility

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

Inclusion criteria

* Patients with a primary diagnosis of a unipolar mood, anxiety, stress or obsessive-compulsive disorder with at least one additional comorbid diagnosis according to the DSM-5. The criteria for diagnosis will be based on the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM (SCID) which assesses disorders according to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. * To be eligible participants will also need to score \>10 on either the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) or Generalised Anxiety Disorder -7 item scale, GAD-7 (see Study Measures above).

Exclusion criteria

* Current/past psychosis or bipolar disorder * Current full diagnosis of substance use disorder * Organic brain damage * Complex trauma history or recurrent self-injury requiring specialist services (as deemed by the NHS Clinical Care team) * Current suicidality that warrants immediate clinical attention and constitutes a current risk of harm to the individual.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in Depression symptomsBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionPatient Health Questionnaire - 9-item version (PHQ-9; Kroenke & Spitzer, 2002)
Change in Level of disability and functional impairmentBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionWork and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS; Mundt, J.C. et al., 2002)
Change in Anxiety symptomsBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionGeneral Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire - 7-item version (GAD-7; Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Lowe, 2006)

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in symptoms of generalised anxietyBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder.
Change in symptoms of social anxietyBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN; Connor, Davidson, Churchill, Sherwood, Foa, & Weisler, 2000). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of social anxiety.
Change in symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorderBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI; Foa, Kozak, Salkovskis, Coles, & Amir, 1998). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Change in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorderBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R; Weiss, 2007). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of PTSD.
Change in symptoms of agoraphobiaBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Agoraphobia-Mobility Inventory (MI; Chambless, Caputo, Jasin, Gracely, & Williams, 1985). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of agoraphobia.
Change in symptoms of specific phobiasBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Fear Questionnaire (FQ; Marks & Mathews, 1979). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of specific phobia.
Change in symptoms of panic disorderBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Panic Disorder Severity Scale - self report version (PDSS-SR; Shear, Brown, Barlow, Money, Sholomskas, Woods, Gorman, & Papp, 1997). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of panic disorder.
Change in symptoms of illness anxietyBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Health Anxiety Inventory - short version (SHAI; Salkovskis, Rimes, Warwick, & Clark, 2002). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of illness anxiety.
Change in level of disability and functional impairmentBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionSheehan Disability Scale (SDS; Sheehan, 1983)
Change in expectancy about treatment outcome, as well as the credibility of the treatmentBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionThe Treatment Credibility / Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ; Devilly & Borkovec, 2000)
Change in ability to contextualize negative events within a wider frame of referenceBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionCognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ; Garnefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2000)
Change in disengagement from and acceptance of troublesome mental content, ruminationBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionExperiences Questionnaire (EQ; Fresco et al., 2007)
Intensity with which participants experience 36 different emotions on a typical dayBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionDifferential Emotions Scale (DES; Izard, 1993)
Change in personality functioning on four subscales: Identity, Self-Direction, Empathy, and IntimacyBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionLevels of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS; Morey et al., 2017)
Change in use of NHS services, other mental health services or activities, help at home, and time off work/lost incomeBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionHealthlines Resource Use Questionnaire (Salisbury, O'Cathain, Edwards, Thomas, Gaunt, Hollinghurst, et al., 2016)
Change in quality of life assessment of health and wellbeing, daily functioning, and general life satisfaction across multiple domainsBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionWorld Health Organisation (WHO) Quality of Life Inventory (WHOQOL; World Health Organisation, 1998)
Change in symptoms of social phobia, agoraphobia and specific phobiaBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment session, three-months following final treatment sessionIAPT Phobia Scales (Department of Health/IAPT, 2011). This measure will only be completed by participants with symptoms of social phobia, agoraphobia or specific phobia.

Other

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in immediate recall and working memory for neutral informationBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment sessionDigit Span Task (Wechsler, 2008)
Change in brief measure of premorbid intelligenceBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment sessionNational Adult Reading Test (Nelson & Wilson, 1991)
Change in emotional structure (awareness and differentiation)Baseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment sessionLevels of Emotional Awareness Scale (Lane et al., 1990)
Change in potential neurobiomarkers that may account for risk of disorders and/or predict treatment response (optional component of participation)Baseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment sessionFunctional connectivity during resting state MRI
Change in levels of ruminationWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Ruminative Responses Scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire (RRS; Treynor, Gonzalez, Nolen-Hoeksema, 2003)
Change in ability to tolerate distressWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS; Simons & Gaher, 2005)
Change in ability to label, perceive, and regulate emotionsWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004)
Change in negative beliefs, thoughts and assumptionsWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS; Weissman, 1979)
Change in mindful awarenessWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS; Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004)
Change in implementation of cognitive therapy skillsWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Skills of Cognitive Therapy (SoCT; Jarrett, 2010)
Change in avoidance of internal experiences including thoughts, feelings, physical sensations.Within one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)The Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (Gamez, Chmielewski, Kotov, Ruggero, & Watson, 2011)
Change in trauma-related beliefs and maladaptive appraisals of intrusive symptomsWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Posttraumatic cognitions inventory - short version (PTCI; Foa, Ehlers, Clark, Tolin, Orsillo, 1999)
Change in cognitive flexibility for emotional informationBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment sessionAffective Card Sorting Task (Barcelo, 2003; Deveney & Deldin, 2006)
Change in fear of physical anxiety sensationsWithin one-week pre-delivery of relevant treatment module; within one-week post-delivery of relevant treatment module (varied time-frame)Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally 1986)
Change in measure of memory specificityBaseline (within two weeks of first treatment session), within one week of the final treatment sessionAutobiographical Memory Test (Williams & Broadbent, 1986).

Countries

United Kingdom

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 23, 2026