Clinical trial NCT04632082: Telepsychoeducation for the Prevention of Emotional Distress in Professionals and Students From Essential Services in the Context of COVID-19
Official title: A Pragmatic Superiority Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Telepsychoeducation Plus Personalized Videos vs. Telepsychoeducation Without Personalized Videos for the Prevention of Future Emotional Distress in Professionals From Essential Services With Low to Moderate Levels of Emotional Distress in Brazil in the Context of COVID-19
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Mental Health Wellness 1
COVID
Emotional Distress
Depressive Symptoms
Anxiety Symptoms
Irritability
Telepsychotherapy
Lead sponsor: Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-11-17
Enrollment: 2200
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Two-group randomized clinical trial including health professionals and health students suffering from low to moderate levels of anxiety, depression and irritability symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak, randomized randomized 1:1 to the Telepsychoeducation with personalized videos (2 sessions with a psychologist plus 2 videos a week for 4 weeks chosen based on symptom presentation) or Telepsychoeducation without personalized videos (2 sessions with a psychologist focused on reassurane and aspects of the outbreak).
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: A pragmatic superiority randomized controlled trial comparing Telepsychoeducation plus personalized videos vs. Telepsychoeducation without personalized videos for the prevention of future emotional distress in professionals and students from essential services with low to moderate levels of emotional distress in Brazil.

Note: This study was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre and is originally registered at Plataforma Brasil, a Brazilian study registration platform (under CAAE: 30608420.5.0000.5327). Recruitment began in May 28th 2020.

Detailed description: TITLE: "A pragmatic superiority randomized controlled trial comparing Telepsychoeducation plus personalized videos vs. Telepsychoeducation without personalized videos for the prevention of future emotional distress in professionals and students from essential services with low to moderate levels of emotional distress in Brazil"

IMPORTANCE: COVID-19 outbreak is associated with increased emotional distress (depression, anxiety and irritability) all over the world. Currently, there are no large randomized trials testing preventive interventions to reduce the burden caused by mental disorders after the occurrence of a pandemic outbreak in these proportions.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of Telepsychoeducation with personalized videos to Telepsychoeducaton without personalized videos for the prevention of severe symptoms of emotional distress (anxiety, depression and irritability) in health professionals with a low to moderate level of those symptoms in Brazil during the COVID-19 outbreak.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Two-group randomized clinical trial. Participants were recruited in Brazil from the national service of telehealth provided by the ministry of health. Participants included health professionals suffering from low to moderate levels of anxiety, depression and irritability symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak. Low to moderate levels of symptoms were defined by all of the following: (1) z score lower than 1.5 on the PROMIS Anxiety Scale; (2) z score lower than 1.5 on the PROMIS Depression Scale; (3) z score lower than 1.5 on the PROMIS Anger Scale.

INTERVENTIONS: All participants were randomized to the Telepsychoeducation with personalized videos (1 session with a psychologist plus 1 videos a week for 4 weeks, chosen based on symptom presentation) or Telepsychoeducation without personalized videos (1 session with a psychologist focused on reassurance and aspects of the outbreak).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome will be the proportion of participants with a T score equal or above 70 in any of the emotional distress scales (anxiety, depression or irritability) in 6 months. Secondary outcomes (1) mean score change in individual scales at 1, 3 and 6 months; (2) proportion of participants with a T score equal or above 60 in any of the emotional distress scales at 1, 3 and 6 months; and (3) service satisfaction and net-promoter score at the end of the treatment.

EXPECTED RESULTS: To detect a 5% group difference between each group, an alpha of 0.05, power of 90% and 20% loss to follow up, in a 1:1 randomization, we would need a total of 1100 participants per group.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria (must present all of the following):

Professionals and students from essential services suffering from low to moderate emotional distress

* z score lower than 1.5 on the PROMIS Anxiety Scale
* z score lower than 1.5 on the PROMIS Depression Scale
* z score lower than 1.5 on the PROMIS Anger Scale

Exclusion Criteria:

* Moderate to severe suicide risk assessed by a psychiatrist

Primary outcomes:
measure: Incident Cases in 6 months
timeFrame: 6-months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Incident cases
timeFrame: 1, 3 an 6-months
measure: Service Satisfaction
timeFrame: 2-weeks
measure: Improvement in Quality of Life
timeFrame: 1, 3 and 6-months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Porto Alegre
country: Brazil
facility: Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre
state: Rio Grande Do Sul
Study officials:
affiliation: Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre/Brazil
name: Giovanni Salum, MD, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Costa MA, Kristensen CH, Dreher CB, Manfro GG, Salum GA. Habituating to pandemic anxiety: Temporal trends of COVID-19 anxiety over sixteen months of COVID-19. J Affect Disord. 2022 Sep 15;313:32-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.06.077. Epub 2022 Jun 27.