Contemporary study for depression: Williams Flashcards
AO1- Aim
To test remote forms of CBT to see if imagination based cognitive bias modification would impact positively on iCBT outcomes./effectiveness of CBM and iCBT to treat depression
AO1- Procedure & Sample
69 patients who were recruited from online applications, they were given a diagnostic interview (using DSM). These were filtered via various criteria such as substance abuse, severity of depression or no internet access
• They were randomised into a control group (31 on a waiting list) and a treatment group of 38.
• They were measured on a number of tests as a baseline; Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ-9), Depression Questionnaire, Kessler’s Psychological Distress Scale, Ambiguous Scenarios Test for depression, Scrambled Sentences Test and secondary measures World Health Organisation Disability Assessment, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire, Short questionnaire to provide an evaluation of treatment
• 20-minute daily treatment of Cognitive bias modification using imagery for the first week (then measured again) followed by the iCBT programme which lasted a further 10 weeks (then measured again).
• No face-to-face contact, it consists of 6 online lessons and regular homework
AO1- Results
- Pre-treatment tests showed no significant difference (so they were a good comparison) e.g. 27.97 Vs 28
- After the first week there was a reduction in depression scores and distress scores in the treatment group- clinically significant differences were seen in 7 of the treatment group and only 2 of the control group
- Analysis at week 11 showed a significant reduction in all primary measures for both treatment and control group- but much larger in the treatment group (65% Vs only 36% in the control group).
- The therapy was evaluated as good, easy and logical by participants
+AO3- ease & accessabilty
They used internet recruitment so were able to gain participants from all over Australia.
+AO3- Standardised
The positive training scenarios were digitally recorded so all participants heard the same scenario in the same way increasing reliability.
+AO3- Ethical
Participants were given the right to withdraw if they lacked internet access, changed medication, depression became more risky, or if they no longer wanted to take part making the study ethical.
Participants who were not allowed to take part in the study were given information about other services that could help them, so the study was ethical.
+AO3- Validity
Other mental disorders such as substance misuse as well as depression were excluded from the sample so the researchers can be sure that other mental disorders did not affect the results of the study.
+AO3- Low Demand Characteristics
Participants did not know which group they had been assigned to so reducing the possibility of demand characteristics influencing their results.
+AO3- Internal Validity
Measures of depression such as the Beck depression inventory have high internal consistency so the measures are reliable
-AO3- DSMIV
Depression was measured using DSMIV, so issues with the validity of DSMIV may affect the validity of diagnosis at the start of the study.
-AO3- Subjective
Participants had to rate themselves on their imagery of the scenarios, which may not be accurate so affecting validity.
-AO3- Effectiveness
Data was collected 3 months after the programme so the study only looks at the short term effectiveness of the programme not the long term effectiveness.
No way of separating iCBT and CBMI effectiveness since there was no group who did only one (either both or neither)
-AO3- social desirability
Self-Report issues when completing the questionnaire measures
-AO3- Extraneous variables
Their lives are a problem given the field nature
-AO3- Ethnocentric
All from same location so may be less generalizable to a wider population
