Clinical trial NCT00794222: A Mobile Phone Self-Monitoring Tool to Increase Emotional Self-Awareness and Reduce Depression in Young People
Official title: A Randomised Controlled Trial Investigating a Mobile Phone Self-monitoring Tool (Mobiletype) to Increase Emotional Self-awareness and Reduce Depressive Symptoms in Young People.
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Depression
Keywords: Cellular phones
mental health
Early intervention
prevention
momentary sampling
Adolescent
Lead sponsor: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-11-20
Enrollment: 118
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 14
Maximum age (years): 24
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The mobiletype program is a mental health assessment and monitoring tool that runs on mobile phones.

The program assesses the general mental health of young people in real-time and transmits this data to a website to be reviewed by their general practitioner (GP) in consultation with their patient. The website consists of individualised feedback reports for each participant, and graphical displays of the monitoring data. The primary aims of the current project are to examine: (1) whether the process of self-monitoring via the mobiletype program increases young people's awareness of their mood and reduces depressive symptoms and (2) whether emotional self-awareness mediates the relationship between self-monitoring and depressive symptoms.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Aged 14 - 24 years of age
* Proficient English
* Patients must be deemed to have an emotional/mental health concern by their GP or be screened to have at least a mild mental health problem (a score of 16 or above) on the K10 Symptom Scale

Exclusion Criteria:

* Severe psychiatric or medical condition that prevents the person from complying with either the requirements of informed consent or the study protocol.
* Young people referred to a mental health specialist by their GP will be excluded only if they obtain a specialist appointment during the mobiletype study period (2 - 4 weeks).

Primary outcomes:
measure: Depressive symptoms
timeFrame: Pre-, post-monitoring, 6-week follow up & 6 month follow-up
measure: Emotional Self Awareness
timeFrame: Pre-, post-, 6-weeks post- and 6-months post-test
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Detection of mental health problems
timeFrame: Pre-, post-monitoring, 6 week and 6 month follow up
measure: Pathways to care
timeFrame: Pre-, post-monitoring, 6 week and 6 month follow up
measure: Patient's satisfaction with their GP
timeFrame: Pre-, post-monitoring, 6 week and 6 month follow up
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Melbourne
country: Australia
facility: Clifton Hill Medical Centre
state: Victoria
Study officials:
affiliation: Murdoch Childrens Research Instititue
name: Sylvia D Kauer, BBSci(Hons)
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
name: Sophie C Reid, PhD,MPsych
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Reid SC, Kauer SD, Hearps SJ, Crooke AH, Khor AS, Sanci LA, Patton GC. A mobile phone application for the assessment and management of youth mental health problems in primary care: health service outcomes from a randomised controlled trial of mobiletype. BMC Fam Pract. 2013 Jun 19;14:84. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-14-84.
citation: Kauer SD, Reid SC, Crooke AH, Khor A, Hearps SJ, Jorm AF, Sanci L, Patton G. Self-monitoring using mobile phones in the early stages of adolescent depression: randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res. 2012 Jun 25;14(3):e67. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1858.
citation: Reid SC, Kauer SD, Hearps SJ, Crooke AH, Khor AS, Sanci LA, Patton GC. A mobile phone application for the assessment and management of youth mental health problems in primary care: a randomised controlled trial. BMC Fam Pract. 2011 Nov 29;12:131. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-12-131.