This study aims to examine the dose-response relationship of an online adaptive cognitive control training on depressive symptomatology and rumination. Participants will be randomized over six groups, each receiving a different dose (0, 1, 5, 10, 15 or 20 sessions) of a cognitive control training in remitted depressed patients. An adaptive Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task will be used as cognitive control training.
Depression is often associated with cognitive impairments and recent studies have found that for some people, these cognitive problems persist after remission of depression. These cognitive impairments could be a risk factor for recurrence of depressive episodes. Cognitive control training aims to address these cognitive impairments and decrease the risk of recurrence of depression. One promising operationalization of cognitive control training is the adaptive Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task, but currently, it's unclear how many sessions one should complete in order to obtain cognitive- and emotional transfer effects. By comparing multiple groups with a different number of sessions (0, 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20), with measures at post (one month after baseline) and two follow-up periods (at 3 months and 6 months after baseline), this study examines the effects of an online cognitive control training on depressive vulnerability factors.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
216
The five intervention groups will receive either 1, 5, 10, 15 or 20 training sessions with the Adaptive Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (aPASAT).
Ghent University Hospital
Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Ghent University
Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Change in Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II-NL)
Self-report questionnaire with 21 items, depression symptom severity, scores can range from 0 to 63, with higher scores indicating more severe depression.
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ-NL)
Change from baseline in perseverative thinking. The PTQ-NL consist of 15 items and are assessed using scores ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (almost always). Lower scores indicate lower levels of preservative thinking.
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ)
Self-reported measure for emotion regulation: a 36-item questionnaire, consisting of 9 subscales (Self-blame, Other-blame, Rumination, Catastrophizing, Putting into Perspective, Positive Refocusing, Positive Reappraisal, Acceptance and Planning). Each item is rated on a 1 to 5 scale (1 = almost never and 5 = almost always). Higher subscale scores represent more frequent use of a specific cognitive strategy.
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ), Effortful Control subscale
Measured by the subscale Effortful Control (EC) from the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ).
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT)
The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) is used to assess burn-out risk. The score ranges from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating a higher risk of burn-out.
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Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in Remission from Depression Questionnaire (RDQ-NL)
The Remission from Depression Questionnaire has 41 items, which assess domains such as positive mental health, life satisfaction, and sense of well-being. The items are scored 0 (not at all or rarely true), 1 (sometimes true) or 2 (often or almost always true).
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in non-adaptive PASAT performance
A non-adaptive computerized version of the Paced Auditory Serial- Addition Task (PASAT) was used as a measure of participants' working memory abilities. Higher accuracy scores suggest greater cognitive control resources.
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline), 3 month follow-up after baseline, 6 month follow-up after baseline
Change in n-back performance
The n-back task is a classic cognitive working memory task during which participants are asked to decide if a digit appearing on a screen is the same as the digit that appeared n stimuli earlier (n-back).
Time frame: baseline, post training (one month after baseline)