Randomized Controlled Trial on Precision Mental Health

NCT ID: NCT05825040

Last Updated: 2024-08-21

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

320 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2024-05-01

Study Completion Date

2025-12-31

Brief Summary

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The current study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of different online psychological interventions, including guided and unguided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy, and unguided mindfulness-based intervention, on mental well-being in comparison to waitlist control. It is hypothesized that participants with the guided psychological intervention will show (H1) a greater reduction in mental health symptoms, and (H2) better mental well-being compared with participants with unguided psychological intervention and the control condition.

Detailed Description

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In Hong Kong, insufficient resources in the current public health system lead to a long waiting time. Mental health services provided by the public health system mainly rely on traditional one-to-one face-to-face sessions. In the past 12 months, there were 47,879 new bookings in public psychiatry outpatient clinics and the longest waiting time was 94 weeks. Priority is always given to people with more severe mental health issues, which causes long waiting time for people with mild mental health symptoms. Untreated mental health issues can be escalated to more severe symptoms. Thus, in addition to treating mental illness, preventing common mental health issues and fostering mental health self-care in the general population are crucial to promote public mental health and reduce the illness burden in society.

Rather than resorting to mental health professionals for face-to-face service to treat common mental health concerns, digital technology provides a highly scalable and accessible means through which individuals can access mental health resources for self-care. Internet-delivered psychological therapy is one of the viable options for this situation. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) has been recommended by the NICE guidelines as one of the low-intensity interventions for people with depression and anxiety. Online scientific evidence-based psychological interventions provide solutions for the service users on their mental well-being issues without practical burdens resulted from long waiting time, high expenses, and stigmatization.

Internet-delivered mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) have emerged as a promising approach in reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms and improving mental well-being. A meta-analysis found that online MBIs had beneficial impact on depression, anxiety, well-being and mindfulness. It also found that guided online MBIs had larger effects on stress and mindfulness compared to unguided MBIs.

In this study, participants will be recruited through (1) advertising on online networking platforms (e.g., Facebook and Instagram), (2) mass mailing at investigator's institutions, and (3) snowball sampling.

Upon completing the screening and pre-evaluation questionnaire, participants will be randomly assigned to one of the groups based on computer-generated random digits. They will complete 5 more sets of questionnaires, including a mid-evaluation 4 weeks after group allocation, a post-evaluation 8 weeks after group allocation, and three follow-up questionnaires at 16 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after group allocation. In experimental groups, participants will complete guided or self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy, or self-guided mindfulness-based intervention within 8 weeks. In the waitlist control group, participants are to refrain from participating in psychological intervention until they finish the follow-up questionnaire.

Conditions

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Mental Well-being Mental Health Issue Mental Health Wellness 1 Precision Mental Health

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Online guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy

In the online guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy group, participants will go through 8 modules with coach support in 8 weeks. They will complete 6 sets of questionnaires at the beginning of the study, at the 4th, 8th, and 16th weeks, and at 6 and 12 months after group allocation. All participants will be able to access all psychological interventions after they have completed the research.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Online guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The contents of guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy are developed by clinical psychologists and psychological well-being officers. The intervention consists of 8 modules. Contents include emotional awareness, physical sensation, emotion-driven behavior, behavioral activation, worry, cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiment, and relapse prevention. Customized guidance will be provided by coaches once a week based on participants' performance

Online self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy

In the online self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy group, participants will go through 8 modules without coach support in 8 weeks. They will complete 6 sets of questionnaires at the beginning of the study, at the 4th, 8th, and 16th weeks, and at 6 and 12 months after group allocation. All participants will be able to access all psychological interventions after they have completed the research.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Online self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The contents of self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy are developed by clinical psychologists and psychological well-being officers. The intervention consists of 8 modules. Contents include emotional awareness, physical sensation, emotion-driven behavior, behavioral activation, worry, cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiment, and relapse prevention. No customized guidance will be provided to participants in the self-guided group.

Waitlist control group

In the waitlist control group, participants are to refrain from using online psychological interventions until they finished the final questionnaire. They will complete 4 sets of questionnaires at the beginning of the study, at the 4th, 8th, and 16th weeks and at 6 and 12 months after group allocation. All participants will be able to access all psychological interventions after they have completed the research.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Online self-guided mindfulness-based intervention

In the online self-guided mindfulness-based intervention group, participants will go through 6 modules in 8 weeks without coach support. They will complete 6 sets of questionnaires at the beginning of the study, at the 4th, 8th, and 16th weeks, and at 6 and 12 months after group allocation. All participants will be able to access all psychological interventions after they have completed the research.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Online self-guided mindfulness-based intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The contents of online self-guided mindfulness-based intervention are developed by clinical psychologists and psychological well-being officers. The intervention consists of 6 modules. Contents include mindfulness and auto-pilot, react and respond, aversion, craving, equanimity, and 'suffering', thoughts and letting go, starting with loving kindness, and mindfulness in life.

Interventions

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Online guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy

The contents of guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy are developed by clinical psychologists and psychological well-being officers. The intervention consists of 8 modules. Contents include emotional awareness, physical sensation, emotion-driven behavior, behavioral activation, worry, cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiment, and relapse prevention. Customized guidance will be provided by coaches once a week based on participants' performance

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Online self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy

The contents of self-guided transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy are developed by clinical psychologists and psychological well-being officers. The intervention consists of 8 modules. Contents include emotional awareness, physical sensation, emotion-driven behavior, behavioral activation, worry, cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiment, and relapse prevention. No customized guidance will be provided to participants in the self-guided group.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Online self-guided mindfulness-based intervention

The contents of online self-guided mindfulness-based intervention are developed by clinical psychologists and psychological well-being officers. The intervention consists of 6 modules. Contents include mindfulness and auto-pilot, react and respond, aversion, craving, equanimity, and 'suffering', thoughts and letting go, starting with loving kindness, and mindfulness in life.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* 17 years old or above
* Able to read Chinese or English
* With internet connection and able to access the internet
* Does not register to Jockey Club TourHeart+ Project or participate in related research projects
* With moderate-severe GAD-7 a/o moderate-severe PHQ-9

Exclusion Criteria

* People who are under 17 years old
* Cannot access the internet
* Existing users of Jockey Club TourHeart+ Project or participate in related research
* Without moderate-severe depressive or anxiety symptoms
* With suicidal risk
Minimum Eligible Age

17 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Chinese University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Winnie W.S. MAK

Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Winnie WS Mak

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Professor

Locations

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Diversity and Well-being Lab, Dept of Psychology, CUHK

Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Hong Kong

Central Contacts

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Winnie WS Mak

Role: CONTACT

+852 39436577

Wing Tung Chung

Role: CONTACT

+852 39433463

Facility Contacts

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Winnie WS Mak

Role: primary

+852 3943 6577

References

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Other Identifiers

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WMHICS-HK

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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