Top

BMC Psychiatry

Published in:

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Study protocol

Reactivity to smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment of depressive symptoms (MoodMonitor): protocol of a randomised controlled trial

Authors: Wouter van Ballegooijen, Jeroen Ruwaard, Eirini Karyotaki, David D. Ebert, Johannes H. Smit, Heleen Riper

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2016

Abstract

Background

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of mental health symptoms may influence the symptoms that it measures, i.e. assessment reactivity. In the field of depression, EMA reactivity has received little attention. We aim to investigate whether EMA of depressive symptoms induces assessment reactivity. Reactivity will be operationalised as an effect of EMA on depressive symptoms measured by a retrospective questionnaire, and, secondly, as a change in response rate and variance of the EMA ratings.

Methods

This study is a 12-week randomised controlled trial comprising three groups: group 1 carries out EMA of mood and completes a retrospective questionnaire, group 2 carries out EMA of how energetic they feel and completes a retrospective questionnaire, group 3 is the control group, which completes only the retrospective questionnaire. The retrospective questionnaire (Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale; CES-D) assesses depressive symptoms and is administered at baseline, 6 weeks after baseline and 12 weeks after baseline. We aim to recruit 160 participants who experience mild to moderate depressive symptoms, defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) score of 5 to 15. This study is powered to detect a small between-groups effect, where no clinically relevant effect is defined as the effect size margin −0.25< d <0.25.

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate whether self-rated EMA of depressive symptoms could induce assessment reactivity among mildly depressed individuals.

Trial registration

Netherlands Trial Register NTR5803. Registered 12 April 2016. http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=5803.

Trull TJ, Ebner-Priemer UW. Using experience sampling methods/ecological momentary assessment (ESM/EMA) in clinical assessment and clinical research: introduction to the special section. Psychol Assess. 2009;21:457–62. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255457/.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Bos FM, Schoevers RA, aan het Rot M. Experience sampling and ecological momentary assessment studies in psychopharmacology: A systematic review. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2015;25:1853–64.CrossRefPubMed

Solhan MB, Trull TJ, Jahng S, Wood PK. Clinical assessment of affective instability: Comparing EMA indices, questionnaire reports, and retrospective recall. Psychol Assess. 2009;21:425–36. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864015/.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Wichers M, Simons CJP, Kramer IMA, Hartmann JA, Lothmann C, Myin-Germeys I, et al. Momentary assessment technology as a tool to help patients with depression help themselves. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2011;124:262–72.CrossRefPubMed

Band R, Barrowclough C, Emsley R, Machin M, Wearden AJ. Significant other behavioural responses and patient chronic fatigue syndrome symptom fluctuations in the context of daily life: An experience sampling study. Br J Health Psychol. 2016;21:499–514.

Clasen PC, Fisher AJ, Beevers CG. Mood-reactive self-esteem and depression vulnerability: Person-specific symptom dynamics via smart phone assessment. PLoS One. 2015;10:e0129774.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Juengst SB, Graham KM, Pulantara IW, McCue M, Whyte EM, Dicianno BE, et al. Pilot feasibility of an mHealth system for conducting ecological momentary assessment of mood-related symptoms following traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj. 2015;29:1351–61. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26287756.CrossRefPubMed

Kleiboer A, Smit J, Bosmans J, Ruwaard J, Andersson G, Topooco N, et al. European COMPARative Effectiveness research on blended Depression treatment versus treatment-as-usual (E-COMPARED): study protocol for a randomized controlled, non-inferiority trial in eight European countries. Trials. 2016;17:1.CrossRef

Seidel M, Petermann J, Diestel S, Ritschel F, Boehm I, King JA, et al. A naturalistic examination of negative affect and disorder-related rumination in anorexia nervosa. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2016 [Epub ahead of print]

10.

Schrimsher G, Filtz K. Assessment Reactivity: Can Assessment of Alcohol Use During Research be an Active Treatment? Alcohol Treat Q. 2011;29:108–15.CrossRef

11.

Clifford PR, Davis CM. Alcohol treatment research assessment exposure: a critical review of the literature. Psychol Addict Behav. 2012;26:773–81. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3529752/.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

12.

Reynolds BM, Robles TF, Repetti RL. Measurement Reactivity and Fatigue Effects in Daily Diary Research With Families. Dev Psychol. 2016;52:442–56.CrossRefPubMed

13.

Kramer I, Simons CJP, Hartmann JA, Menne-Lothmann C, Viechtbauer W, Peeters F, et al. A therapeutic application of the experience sampling method in the treatment of depression: A randomized controlled trial. World Psychiatry. 2014;13:68–77.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

14.

World Health Organization. ICD-10 Version: 2016 [Internet]. 2016. Available from: http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en. Accessed 19 Oct 2016.

15.

Radloff LS. The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Appl Psychol Meas. 1977;1:385–401. Available from: http://10.1177/014662167700100306\nhttp://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=1979-10129-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site.CrossRef

16.

Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB. Validation and utility of a self-report version of PRIME-MD: the PHQ primary care study. Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders. Patient Health Questionnaire. JAMA. 1999;282:1737–44.CrossRefPubMed

17.

Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW. The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med. 2001;16:606–13.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

18.

Erbe D, Eichert HC, Rietz C, Ebert DD. Interformat reliability of the patient health questionnaire: Validation of the computerized version of the PHQ-9. Internet Interv. 2016;5:1–4.CrossRef

19.

Bouma J, Ranchor A V, Sanderman R, van Sonderen E. Het meten van symptomen van depressie met de CES-D. Een handleiding. Groningen: Noordelijk Centrum voor Gezondheidsvraagstukken, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; 1995.

20.

van Ballegooijen W, Riper H, Cuijpers P, van Oppen P, Smit JH. Validation of online psychometric instruments for common mental health disorders: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry. 2016;16:45. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4766750/.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

21.

Brooke J. SUS - A quick and dirty usability scale. Usability Eval Ind. 1996;189:4–7. Available from: http://hell.meiert.org/core/pdf/sus.pdf.

22.

Bangor A, Kortum PT, Miller JT. An Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale. Int J Hum Comput Interact. 2008;24:574–94.CrossRef

23.

Maciejewski DF, Van Lier PAC, Neumann A, Van Der Giessen D, Branje SJT, Meeus WHJ, et al. The development of adolescent generalized anxiety and depressive symptoms in the context of adolescent mood variability and parent-adolescent negative interactions. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2014;42:515–26.CrossRefPubMed

24.

Holm S. A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure. Scand J Stat. 1979;6:65–70.

25.

IBM Corp. Released. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. 2015. 2015.

26.

R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing [Internet]. R Found. Stat. Comput. Vienna Austria. 2015. p. {ISBN} 3-900051-07-0. Available from: http://www.r-project.org/. Accessed 19 Oct 2016.

27.

Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang A-G, Buchner A. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2007;39:175–91. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17695343.CrossRefPubMed

28.

Hirschfeld G, von Brachel R. Multiple-Group confirmatory factor analysis in R–A tutorial in measurement invariance with continuous and ordinal indicators. Pract Assess Res Eval. 2014;19:2.

Title: Reactivity to smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment of depressive symptoms (MoodMonitor): protocol of a randomised controlled trial
Authors: Wouter van Ballegooijen
Jeroen Ruwaard
Eirini Karyotaki
David D. Ebert
Johannes H. Smit
Heleen Riper
Publication date: 01-12-2016
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-1065-5

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Reactivity to smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment of depressive symptoms (MoodMonitor): protocol of a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background

Methods

Discussion

Trial registration

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Discussion

Trial registration

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Co-occurring symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a population-based sample of adolescents screened for depression

Assessment of personality-related levels of functioning: a pilot study of clinical assessment of the DSM-5 level of personality functioning based on a semi-structured interview

Adaptation of the Quality Indicator for Rehabilitative Care (QuIRC) for use in mental health supported accommodation services (QuIRC-SA)

Smaller gray matter volume of hippocampus/parahippocampus in elderly people with subthreshold depression: a cross-sectional study

Child and adolescent psychiatry patients coming of age: a retrospective longitudinal study of inpatient treatment in Tyrol

Removing and reimplanting deep brain stimulation therapy devices in resistant OCD (when the patient does not respond): case report