Evaluation of a Randomised Guided Internet-based Self-help Intervention for Older Adults Who Seek Support for Coping With Prolonged Grief Symptoms After Marital Bereavement or Divorce - LIVIA
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- University of Bern
- Enrollment
- 110
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Grief symptoms
Study Overview
Brief Summary
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of an internet-based self-help intervention for older adults with prolonged grief symptoms after spousal bereavement or separation/divorce. The study design is a randomized trial with a waiting control condition of 12 weeks and a follow-up after 6 months. The investigators will test the following main hypotheses:
- The intervention group shows a significant decrease in grief symptoms, psychological distress, depression symptoms and embitterment, and a significant increase in life satisfaction, as well as session related outcomes from baseline to 12 weeks post intervention assessment.
- The effects in the intervention group are larger than the effects in the waiting control group.
- These effects are stable from the post measure at 12 weeks to the 6-month follow-up.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 40 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- •Marital bereavement or separation/divorce. Both events should have happened more than 6 months before participating in the study.
- •Seeking support for coping with grief symptoms
- •Internet access
- •Mastery of the German language
- •Informed Consent
Exclusion Criteria
- •Acute suicidality (BDI Suicide item > 1 or suicidal ideation in the telephone interview)
- •No emergency plan: In the telephone interview, an emergency plan will be developed which specifies a health care professional, who participants can turn to in an acute crisis. If no such person or health care service can be found, individuals will be excluded from the intervention.
- •Severe psychological or somatic disorders which need immediate treatment.
- •Concomitant psychotherapy (participants may take part in the self-help intervention, but will not be included in the study.)
- •Prescribed drugs against depression or anxiety lead to an exclusion if prescription or dosage has changed in the month prior or during the self-help intervention.
- •Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. due to comprehension problems
Arms & Interventions
Internet-based self-help
The self-help programme consists of 10 text-based sessions and one supportive E-Mail a week. The programme employs cognitive-behavioural interventions. The theoretical background is the Dual Process Model by Stroebe and Schutt (1999).
Intervention: Internet-based self-help (Other)
Waiting control group
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Grief symptoms
Time Frame: 6 months after the start of the intervention
Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (German version, Znoj,2008; Faschingbauer, 1981)
Psychological distress
Time Frame: 6 months after the start of the intervention
Brief Symptom Inventory (German version, Franke, 2000)
Grief symptoms
Time Frame: 12 weeks after the start of the intervention
Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (German version, Znoj,2008; Faschingbauer, 1981)
Psychological distress
Time Frame: 12 weeks after the start of the intervention
Brief Symptom Inventory (German version, Franke, 2000)
Secondary Outcomes
- Depression symptoms(6 months after the start of the intervention)
- Satisfaction with life(6 months after the start of the intervention)
- Embitterment(6 months after the start of the intervention)
- Depression symptoms(12 weeks after the start of the intervention)
- Satisfaction with life(12 weeks after the start of the intervention)
- Embitterment(12 weeks after the start of the intervention)