Anxiety Disorders, Depression
Conditions
Keywords
Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Prevention, m-health, App, Randomized Controlled Trial
Brief summary
Objective: To design, develop, and evaluate a personalized intervention for the universal prevention of depression and anxiety in the general population based on risk algorithms, ICTs, and decision support systems (DSS). Methods: A double-blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial with a twelve-month follow-up. The entire process of recruitment, random allocation, intervention, and follow-up will be conducted through the 'PredictPlusPrevent' platform and its associated apps. Following a media campaign, at least 9,000 Spanish participants aged 18 to 55 years without depression and/or anxiety at baseline will be randomly assigned to the intervention or active control group PredictPlusPrevent. The PredictPlusPrevent intervention will be self-guided and implemented through participants' smartphones via an app; it will have a biopsychosocial and multi-component approach (8 modules: physical exercise, improving sleep, expanding relationships, problem-solving, improving communication, assertiveness, decision-making, and managing thoughts). The PredictPlusPrevent intervention is based on validated risk algorithms for depression and anxiety and a DSS that will help participants develop their own personalized depression prevention plans, which they will implement themselves while the platform monitors and provides feedback. The active control PredictPlusPrevent will include information from the risk algorithms and 24 self-help booklets. The primary outcome will be the incidence of new cases of depression and/or anxiety assessed using the PRIME-MD questionnaire, and secondary outcomes will include reductions in depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), probability of depression and anxiety risk (predictD and predictA algorithms), and physical and mental quality of life (SF-12).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPredictplusprevent intervention
The intervention is based on validated risk algorithms to predict depression and anxiety and includes: 1) Mobile applications as main user's interface; 2) a DSS that helps participants to develop their own personalized plans to prevent (PPP) depression and/or anxiety; 3) eight intervention modules (the core of the system) including activities to prevent depression and anxiety, to be proposed and monitoring by the DSS. The intervention is biopsychosocial and multi-component, including the following modules: physical exercise, improving sleep, expanding relationships, problem solving, improving communication skills, assertiveness training, making decisions and managing thoughts. Participants will implement the recommendations and the tool will monitor these actions, offering feedback to improve their PPP at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
OTHERPsychoeducational intervention
To know the level of risk of experiencing depression and/or anxiety in the next 12 months. In addition, participants assigned to this intervention will have free access to the 24 self-help pamphlets for preventing depression and anxiety.
Sponsors
The Mediterranean Institute for the Advance of Biotechnology and Health Research
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 55 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Age between 18 and 55 years. * Participants must have a smartphone for their own use in the next year.
Exclusion criteria
* Not signing the informed consent. * Having depression and/or anxiety at baseline according to the PRIME-MD questionnaire. * Living outside of Spain. * Having a severe mental disorder (psychosis, bipolar disorder, addictions, etc.), a terminal illness or cognitive impairment (dementia). * Difficulties in understanding Spanish.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Incidence of depression and/or anxiety disorders. | 12 months | Incidence of depression and/or anxiety disorders by Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD). PRIME-MD is a diagnostic tool to diagnose depression and anxiety disorders. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Depressive symptoms measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). | 12 months | The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) measures symptoms of depression through 9 items, each of which is scored 0 ('not at all') to 3 ('nearly every day'). Low scores are equivalent to less symptoms of depression, the scalen range is 0 to 27 (9 items). |
| Anxious symptoms measured by the General Anxiety Questionnaire (GAD-7). | 12 months | The General Anxiety Questionnaire (GAD-7) measures generalized anxiety disorder through 7 items, each of which is scored 0 ('not at all') to 3 ('nearly every day'). Low scores are equivalent to less symptoms of anxiety, the scale range is 0 to 21 (7 items). |
| Probability of depression measured by the Spanish predictD risk algorithm. | 12 months | The Spanish predictD risk algorithm measures 13 risk factors for depression. |
| Probability of anxiety measured by the Spanish predictA risk algorithm. | 12 months | The Spanish predictA risk algorithm measures 12 risk factors for anxiety disorders. |
| Quality of life measured by the 12-item Short Form (SF-12). | 12 months | The 12-item Short Form (SF-12) measures quality of life related to physical health and quality of life related to mental health. Scores on the scales range from 0 to 100. Higher scores are equivalent to better health-related quality of life. |
Contacts
Primary ContactJuan Á. Bellón, PhD
Outcome results
None listed