Clinical trial NCT02119923: Tackling Depression and Anxiety: A Working Memory Intervention
Official title: Effects of Working Memory Training in a Depressed and Anxious Sample
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Major Depression
Anxiety Disorder
Keywords: Depression
Anxiety
Working memory
Rumination
Cognitive training
Executive functioning
Lead sponsor: Erasmus Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2014-04-22
Enrollment: 240
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 16
Maximum age (years): 68
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Anxiety and depression are both associated with impairments in executive functions, including working memory (WM) which is needed to maintain and manipulate goal-relevant information. Due to these WM impairments anxious and depressed individuals have difficulties inhibiting and shifting from irrelevant (negative) information and updating goal relevant information. This study explored whether training WM decreases these impairments and reduces clinical symptoms and rumination. Eighty-four individuals diagnosed with major depression and forty-nine individuals with an anxiety diagnosis executed WM or control tasks three times a week, during four weeks. Before, after training and at a two months follow-up measurement depression and anxiety symptoms, WM capacity and rumination behaviour were assessed. Training WM did only result in a reduction of anxiety symptoms in the depression group. These findings are inconsistent with promising results of individual studies showing training WM result in an enlarged WM capacity and a decrease of psychopathological symptoms. However, our results are in line with recent meta-analyses and reviews which show that WM training do not lead to generalized effects and therefore, doubt the clinical relevance of WM training programs.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Major depression diagnosis
* Anxiety disorder diagnosis

Exclusion Criteria:

* Current psychosis
* Current substance dependency

Primary outcomes:
measure: Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition (BDI-II) score change between pre and post training and at follow-up measurement (2 months after post measurement)
timeFrame: Pre training (baseline), post training (4 weeks after baseline, training starts 1 day after baseline) and follow-up (2 months after post-test)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores change from pre to post training and to follow up measurement (2 months after post measurement)
timeFrame: Pre training (baseline), post training (4 weeks after baseline, training starts 1 day after baseline) and follow-up (2 months after post-test)
Other outcomes:
measure: Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) score change between pre and post training and follow up (two months after post)
timeFrame: Pre training (baseline), post training (4 weeks after baseline, training starts 1 day after baseline) and follow-up (2 months after post-test)
measure: Symmetry Span score change between pre and post training and at follow-up measurement (2 months after post measurement)
timeFrame: Pre training (baseline), post training (4 weeks after baseline, training starts 1 day after baseline) and follow-up (2 months after post-test)
measure: Internal shift task score change between pre and post training and at follow-up measurement (2 months after post measurement)
timeFrame: Pre training (baseline), post training (4 weeks after baseline, training starts 1 day after baseline) and follow-up (2 months after post-test)
Locations:
city: Rotterdam
country: Netherlands
facility: Erasmus University Rotterdam
state: Zuid Holland
Study officials:
affiliation: Erasmus University Rotterdam
name: Elke Geraerts, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Erasmus University Rotterdam
name: Sabine Wanmaker, MSc
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: