NCT04703491

TreadWill, an Automated Intervention for Depressive Symptoms

A Novel and Adaptive Software for Automated Delivery of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 500 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

TreadWill is a fully automated digital intervention that provides a multi-modal treatment for depressive symptoms. It includes: 1. Slides and interactive text-based conversations based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); 2. Mindfulness videos; 3. Game-based Cognitive Bias Modification paradigms; 4. An empathetic chatbot. This study's primary aim is to test the differential effectiveness of this full-featured version of TreadWill compared to a text-based CBT program.

Detailed description

TreadWill is an online tool to deliver automated intervention for depressive symptoms. TreadWill helps the participants learn the concepts of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and practice mindfulness in an interactive manner. It also has games based on Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) and an empathetic chatbot. We hypothesize that participants using TreadWill will show a significant reduction in depressive symptoms and will show engagement with the program. To test this hypothesis, we are conducting a randomized controlled trial. We will randomize participants into three groups: experimental, active control, and waitlist. Participants randomized to the experimental group will get access to the full-featured version of TreadWill as described above. Participants randomized to the active control group will have access to a limited version of TreadWill designed to deliver basic CBT in plain text format. The waitlisted participants will be put on a waitlist for 6 weeks.

Conditions

• Depressive Symptoms

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Interactive and full-featured intervention	Participants will go through an automated program. Participants will learn and practice the techniques of CBT through multimedia elements. They will play games based on Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) paradigms, practice mindfulness, and chat with an automated empathic chatbot.
BEHAVIORAL	Feature-limited CCBT	Participants will be going through an automated program. Participants will learn and practice the techniques of CBT in a plain-text format with reduced features
OTHER	Waitlist control	Participants will be put on a waitlist for a period of 6 weeks.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-04-27
• Primary completion: 2022-01-01
• Completion: 2022-04-01
• First posted: 2021-01-11
• Last updated: 2021-05-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: India