Online Cognitive Control Training for Remitted Depressed Patients

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Major Depression in Remission
• Interventions: Behavioral: Cognitive control training; Behavioral: Active control training

• Registration Number: NCT03278756
• Lead Sponsor: University Ghent

Brief Summary

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an internet-delivered cognitive control training as a preventive intervention for remitted depressed patients. Half of the participants will receive a cognitive control training, while the other half will receive a low cognitive load training that acts as an active control condition.

Detailed Description

Prospective studies have linked impaired cognitive control to increased cognitive vulnerability for future depression. Importantly, experimental studies indicate that cognitive control training can be used to reduce rumination and depressive symptomatology in MDD (major depressive disorder) and RMD (remitted depressed) samples. Provided that remitted depressed patients form a high-risk group for developing future depressive episodes, the current study will explore whether an internet-delivered cognitive control training can be used to reduce vulnerability for future depression in remitted depressed patients.

A computer training, consisting of 10 sessions of 15 minutes each, will be administered to participants, which are remitted depressed patients. This training can either be a cognitive control training, using an adaptive paced auditory serial addition task, or an active control training, with a low cognitive load task.

Dependent variables will be assessed pre- and post-training, as well as 3 and 6 months after the training, and consist of depressive symptomatology, related variables and cognitive control measures.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2017-08-18
• Study Start: 2017-09-01
• Study First Submitted QC: 2017-09-08
• Study First Posted: 2017-09-12
• Primary Completion: 2019-03-13
• Study Completion: 2019-03-13
• Status Verified: 2022-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-11-08
• Last Update Posted: 2022-11-09

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 68

Inclusion Criteria

• History of ≥ 1 depressive episodes (major or bipolar)
• Currently in stable full or partial remission (≥ 3 months)

Exclusion Criteria

• Major depressive disorder (current or less than 3 months in remission)
• Bipolar disorder (current or less than 3 months in remission)
• Psychotic disorder (current and/or previous)
• Neurological impairments (current and/or previous)
• Excessive substance abuse (current and/or previous)
• No ongoing psychotherapeutic treatment (maintenance treatment is allowed, but with a frequency of less than once every three weeks)
• Use of antidepressant medication is allowed if kept at a constant level

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Cognitive Control Training	Cognitive control training	A cognitive control training, consisting of 10 sessions of 15 minutes each, will be administered. The task in this training is an adaptive paced auditory serial addition task, where participants need to click on the sum of the last two heard digits.
Active Control Training	Active control training	An active control training, consisting of 10 sessions of 15 minutes each, will be administered. The task in this training is an adaptive low load cognitive task, where participants need to click on the last heard digit.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in depressive symptomatology	Assessed at pre-training assessment, at post-training assessment (within 1 week of completing the training), at 3 months follow-up and at 6 months follow-up	Measured by the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS)
Change in depressive rumination (brooding)	Assessed at pre- and post-training assessment (within 1 week of completing the training) and at 3 and 6 months follow-up	Measured by the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS), especially the brooding subscale

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in cognitive emotion regulation strategies	Assessed at pre- and post-training assessment (within 1 week of completing the training) and at 3 and 6 months follow-up	Measured by the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ)
Resilience	Assessed at pre- and post-training assessment (within 1 week of completing the training) and at 3 and 6 months follow-up	Measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)
Change in quality of life	Assessed at pre- and post-training assessment (within 1 week of completing the training) and at 3 and 6 months follow-up	Measured by the Quality of Life in Depression Scale (QLDS)
Remission from depression	Assessed at pre- and post-training assessment (within 1 week of completing the training) and at 3 and 6 months follow-up	Measured by the Remission of Depression Questionnaire (RDQ)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Ghent University; 🇧🇪 Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium