Internet Program for Workers With Subthreshold Depression
Condition: Depression
MeSH terms: Depression; Depressive Disorder
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Depression is one of the most prevalent mental disorders to afflict adults. It seriously
      impacts role functioning and often takes a recurrent or chronic course. Because most adults
      who suffer from depression never receive treatment, there is a critical need to develop
      interventions that can be easily implemented and widely disseminated. Interventions that
      reduce the performance-impairing symptoms of subclinical depression and prevent the onset of
      major depression can improve employee well-being, while reducing healthcare costs and
      improving productivity. This project produced a mobile-web program to activate cognitive
      behavioral skills in workers with subthreshold depression, reduce depression symptoms,
      improve functioning in the workplace, and potentially reduce the risk for escalation to
      full-syndrome depression.
    

Detailed description: 
      The responsive mobile-web MoodHacker app was designed to: (a) educate users about depression;
      (b) educate users about the logistics and benefits of mood and activity monitoring; (c)
      promote daily mood and activity monitoring; (d) help users increase their positive activity
      engagement; (e) help users decrease negative thinking and increase positive thinking; and (f)
      promote daily practice of the skills taught.

      Program content was adapted from the Coping with Depression group therapy course [18],
      enhanced with mindfulness-based [22] and other evidence-based positive psychology strategies
      [23-25]. Content for the application was refined based on input from experts in the field who
      had extensive experience working with adult employees at risk for depression. Additional
      program modifications were made based on data from individual interviews and iterative user
      testing with the population of interest during the formative and production phases of the
      project.

      The MoodHacker user experience is structured around twelve learning objectives delivered
      through daily emails, in-app messaging, and in the "Articles & Videos" library. Daily emails
      (Figure 1) are sent to engage users in program content, provide sequenced guidance through
      the learning objectives in the articles and whiteboard-style videos, give tips for getting
      the most out of MoodHacker, and prompt the user to track their mood and activities daily.
      Users are encouraged to view the articles and videos as ordered, but viewing is not
      restricted, and users can view content according to their interest. The emails, articles and
      videos promote practice of the featured cognitive and behavioral skills outside the app
      experience.
    

Intervention name(s): MoodHacker; Alternative Care
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Mobile-web app to educate users about depression and promote daily mood and positive activity monitoring.; Online information about depression from government and other trusted sources to educate users about depression.
Other intervention name(s): Internet program for workers with subthreshold depression
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Keywords: Subthreshold; Employees; Internet; Mobile; cognitive-behavioral