Low Intensity Internet Therapy for Chronic Illness (@LIIT.CI)

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Chronic Medical Conditions
• Interventions: Behavioral: LIIT.CI CFT; Behavioral: LIIT.CI ACT

• Registration Number: NCT04408651
• Lead Sponsor: University of Coimbra

Brief Summary

Chronic illness (CI) presents a significant and negative effect on quality of life and mental health. Further, emotion regulation has been considered of particular importance on the determination of chronic patients' well-being. Evidence suggests that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an effective approach to improve psychological health in patients with CI. Further, there is some, although limited, evidence, that self-compassion training may be also useful in this context, and the inclusion of self-compassion elements in ACT interventions has even been the focus of attention by recent studies. Nevertheless, no study yet has compared the efficacy of these two types of intervention in CI. This is the aim of the present project - to analyse, in a low intensity eHealth intervention context, whether ACT or Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) present superiority over the other in improving mental health and illness-related outcomes in CI.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2020-05-01
• Study First Submitted: 2020-05-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-05-28
• Study First Posted: 2020-05-29
• Primary Completion: 2020-12-31
• Study Completion: 2021-08-31
• Status Verified: 2022-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-05-16
• Last Update Posted: 2022-05-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 54

Inclusion Criteria

• Age between 18 and 65
• Previous diagnosis of a physical chronic medical condition
• Easy access to internet and to a computer

Exclusion Criteria

• Receiving psychological intervention
• Diagnosis of a severe psychiatric disorder (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder) or cognitive impairment.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Compassion-Focused Therapy	LIIT.CI CFT	-
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy	LIIT.CI ACT	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales; HADS)	Changes in results from: immediately pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention assessments	Higher scores indicate more depression and anxiety symptoms (0-21)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Cognitive fusion (Cognitive Fusion Scale; CFQ-7)	Changes in results from: immediately pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention assessments	Higher scores indicate higher levels of cognitive fusion (0-28)
Psychological Flexibility (Comprehensive assessment of ACT processes; CompACT)	Changes in results from: immediately pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention assessments	Higher scores indicate higher levels of psychological flexibility (0-108)
Self-compassion (Self-compassion scale; SCS)	Changes in results from: immediately pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention assessments	Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-compassion (subscale of the Self-compassion scale) (13-65)
Illness shame (Chronic Illness Shame Scale; CISS)	Changes in results from: immediately pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention assessments	Higher scores indicate higher levels of illness shame (0-28)
Self-criticism (Self-compassion scale; SCS)	Changes in results from: immediately pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention assessments	Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-cristicism (subscale of the Self-compassion scale) (13-65)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Inês Trindade; 🇵🇹 Coimbra, Portugal