NCT04707495

Treating Depressed Mood With a Smartphone-delivered Positive Word Stimulation for Subthreshold Depression

Treating Depressed Mood With a Smartphone-delivered Positive Word Stimulation for Subthreshold Depression: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 32 (actual)
• Sponsor: Gunma University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years – 39 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is an important public health problem. Thus, preventive interventions against subthreshold depression (StD), which is one of the key risk factors for the development of MDD, are important. The study developed a smartphone application (SPSRS) that improves depressive symptoms in people with StD by automatically presenting positive word stimuli during videos. The SPSRS application has the potential to improve depressive symptoms in people with StDs. However, whether it can immediately improve depressed moods in people with StD is unclear. The study aims to investigate the immediate effects of SPSRS applications on depressed mood in people with StD.

Conditions

• Subthreshold Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Smartphone Application (SPSRS)	The experimental group receives video-viewing intervention using the SPSRS application, which is a smartphone application. SPSRS is programmed to present 150 ms of positive words after presenting 17 ms of self-confidence-boosting words in videos. These words are repeated every 5 s. The words to increase self-confidence are "can," "let us try," "good luck," "able," and "do not worry". These self-confidence-boosting words randomly appear in the four corners of the screen. The positive words are "nice," "great," "fantastic," "satisfactory," and "enjoyable". These words are displayed at the center of the screen. Interveners use the SPSRS application according to the operating manual. The participants will use an iPhone managed by interveners to watch a pre-determined 10-minute video.
DEVICE	Smartphone Application (YouTube)	The control group uses the same iPhone as the experimental group. The control group uses the YouTube application to receive video-viewing intervention. The control group videos do not show confidence-boosting and positive words. The control group watches the same video as the experimental group for 10 min.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-03-04
• Primary completion: 2021-06-14
• Completion: 2021-06-14
• First posted: 2021-01-13
• Last updated: 2021-11-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Japan