NCT01605552

Beating the Blues for Your Heart

Computer-Based Depression Treatment to Reduce Coronary Artery Disease Risk

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 29 (actual)
• Sponsor: Indiana University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The objective of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether a computerized depression treatment, delivered before the onset of heart disease, reduces the risk of heart disease in the future. Participants in this trial will be primary care patients who are depressed but do not have a history of heart disease. Half of these patients will receive a standard treatment (usual care), and the other half will receive eight weeks of an evidence-based psychological treatment called Beating the Blues®, which is a computerized, cognitive behavioral treatment program for depression. To evaluate change in heart disease risk, the investigators will measure the functioning of the arteries using ultrasound before and after the treatment. It is hypothesized that patients who receive Beating the Blues® will show greater improvements in both depression and artery function than patients who receive standard treatment.

Detailed description

Depression is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD); unfortunately, past trials have not detected a cardiovascular benefit. A promising and unexplored explanation for these results is that the interventions were delivered too late in the natural history of CAD. Because no study has evaluated this possibility, there is a critical need to determine whether evidence-based depression treatment, delivered before the onset of clinical CAD, reduces cardiovascular risk. Accordingly, the objective of the proposed clinical and translational research is to perform a preliminary evaluation of the efficacy of a highly disseminable depression intervention in decreasing CAD risk. To achieve this goal, a clinical trial of depressed primary care patients free of cardiovascular disease is being conducted. Patients will be randomized to usual care or a computer-based, cognitive behavioral intervention called Beating the Blues®, the most widely used and empirically supported computerized treatment program for depression. The primary outcome is brachial artery flow-mediated dilation, a noninvasive measure of endothelial function. The specific aim of the proposed trial is to evaluate whether Beating the Blues®, delivered prior to the onset of clinical CAD, improves endothelial dysfunction. Demonstrating that earlier treatment of depression with Beating the Blues lowers CAD risk, the long-term expected outcome, would place computed-based depression treatment in the armamentarium of CAD prevention strategies of the primary care provider. This change to clinical practice should result in improved cardiovascular risk management, which in turn would translate into reduced CAD morbidity and mortality.

Conditions

• Depression
• Depressive Symptoms
• Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
• Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
• Heart Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Beating the Blues (BtB)	BtB is a widely used, empirically supported, computer-based, CBT program for depression designed for use in primary care clinics. BtB utilizes an interactive, multimedia format to deliver and eight 50-minute, weekly therapy sessions. General topics covered include identifying and challenging automatic thoughts, cognitive errors, core beliefs, and attributional styles; activity scheduling; problem solving; graded exposure; task breakdown; sleep management; and relapse prevention. In addition to session work, patients are assigned homeworks that are customized to their needs and reviewed at the start of each session. A progress report, including whether the patient is experiencing suicidal ideation, is generated at the end of each session.
OTHER	Usual Care	Patients randomized to usual care will be informed that they have clinically significant depressive symptoms and will be encouraged to follow-up with their primary care physicians, who will receive a letter from our team indicating that their patient has elevated depressive symptoms and was randomized to the control condition. The letter will also encourage physicians to follow-up with their patients and will provide a list of local mental health services. Like those in the intervention group, usual care patients will continue to have access to and will receive any medical and mental health services that are part of usual care in the targeted health care systems. Thus, there are no restrictions regarding the care that these patients can receive.

Timeline

• Start date: 2011-07-01
• Primary completion: 2012-12-01
• Completion: 2012-12-01
• First posted: 2012-05-25
• Last updated: 2022-12-29
• Results posted: 2016-02-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States