MemReD - Design Acceptability
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Memory Reshaping for Depression: Design Acceptability Study of a Novel Digital Intervention
IRAS ID
339760
Contact name
Roland Zahn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 0 days
Research summary
The aim of the current Medical Research Council-funded pre-study is to probe the acceptability of the design of a novel digital psychological intervention for depression delivered remotely in a case series of eight people over 4 weeks. The intervention is tailored for the large number of people who either do not engage with or disengage from currently available mental health services due to the limitations of standard treatments. Using simple self-guided strategies which can be easily implemented on a day-to-day basis is promising to meet the needs of people who are sensitive to medication side effects and who do not want to depend on others, as well as those whose symptoms prevent them from engaging in active behaviour change as required even by online versions of standard psychotherapies.
Our project proposal builds on evidence that distorted personal memories play an important role in explaining two key symptoms of depression: a diminished ability to look forward to positive experiences and feelings of self-worthlessness.
The proposed novel treatment combines two previous treatments, which empower people with depression to tackle their memory distortions by 1) training memory flexibility for positive experiences, and 2) tackling self-blame-related memories.Both approaches have shown promising results in our previous pilot trials, but their delivery using online sessions and an app which can be accessed on people's mobile phones, as well as their combination into one course of treatment has not been investigated. The current case-series study is part of our technical development prior to embarking on a remote randomised controlled feasibility trial. The current case-series will probe the acceptability of the design of remote sessions and our novel web-based app after co-developing this with our lived experience user group.
This is an indispensable step towards our long-term goal of delivering novel widely available treatments for difficult-to-treat depression.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/LO/0658
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion