Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT00745940

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Intervention to Treat Depression in Individuals With a Traumatic Brain Injury

The purpose of this study is to determine whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is effective in reducing depression symptoms in individuals who have experienced a traumatic brain injury.

The investigators hypothesize that participants who are given the ten-week intervention will have fewer depression symptoms than the participants in the control group, and this improvement will be maintained at the three-month follow-up assessment.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Loading trial locations.

About this study

Major depression is a significant chronic problem for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and its treatment is difficult. A promising approach to treat depression is mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), a relatively new therapeutic approach rooted in mindfulness-based stress-reduction (MBSR) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This multi-site, randomized, controlled trial of a MBCT intervention will examine the value of this intervention in improving quality of life and decreasing depression in people with TBI. MBCT may represent a time-limited, cost-effective group intervention through which clinicians would have an opportunity to address some of the most debilitating aspects of TBI.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • traumatic brain injury suffered more than one year ago but less than five
  • Evidence of depression post-traumatic brain injury (Beck Depression Inventory-II score of 16 or greater)
  • Ability to speak and read English
  • Age 18 or more

Exclusion criteria

  • Inability to benefit from the intervention based a consensus process amongst study clinical psychologist and physicians, and from scores on memory and auditory attention (California Verbal Learning Test, Digit Span subsection of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale); verbal fluency and executive functioning (Controlled Oral Word Association Test); verbal abstract reasoning (Similarities subsection of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale); and executive functioning (Trail Making Test).
  • Evidence of unusual psychological processes such as psychosis, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, or major concurrent mental illness (Beck Depression Inventory-II and Symptom Checklist-90-R will supplement the decision-making process of study clinicians).

Treatment and study plan

MBCT for TBI

Behavioral

Subjects will participate in a 10-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Program led by two trained facilitators. Weekly one-and-a-half hour group sessions will guide subjects through exercises such as meditation, awareness, and breathing techniques aimed at developing skills to help with tension, stress, anxiety and depression. Subjects will be encouraged to practice skills at home and in daily life.

Other names: MBCT

Primary outcomes

  1. Beck Depression Inventory - II

    Time frame: Baseline data were collected prior to the intervention and post-intervention data were collected 10 weeks later.

    The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) is a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory, one of the most widely used instruments for measuring the severity of depression. It assesses the intensity of depression into 4 categories ranging from minimal (scores from 0-13) to severe (scores from 29-63) (79). Each item is a list of four statements arranged in increasing severity about a particular symptom of depression. The depression criteria are consistent with those of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). The cognitive-affective factor includes items concerning sadness, past failure, loss of pleasure, guilty feelings, punishment feelings, self-dislike, self-criticalness, suicidal thoughts or wishes, crying, agitation, loss of interest, worthlessness, and irritability. The somatic factor is comprised of loss of energy, changes in sleeping pattern, changes in appetite, concentration difficulty, and tiredness or fatigue.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)

    Time frame: Baseline data were collected prior to the intervention and post-intervention data were collected 10 weeks later.

    The PHQ-9 is a self-administered questionnaire based on the PRIME-MD diagnostic instrument for common mental disorders. Each of the 9 DSM-IV criteria is scored on a four point Likert scale ranging from "0" (not at all) to "3" (nearly every day) with higher scores indicative of greater depression symptoms. Scores range from a low of 0 to a high of 27.

  2. Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (Depression Subscale)

    Time frame: Baseline data were collected prior to the intervention and post-intervention data were collected 10 weeks later.

    The Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) is a 90 item self-report questionnaire designed to measure nine primary symptom dimensions: somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism from the last two weeks from the current point in time. A five point Likert scale is used ranging from "Not at All" to "Extremely" with higher scores indicative of greater symptoms. There are 13 questions in the depression subscale with scores ranging between 0 and 52. To help with interpretation of all SCL-90-R sub-scales, we transformed this sub-scale total score back to a score between 0 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater depression symptoms.

  3. Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (Awareness Subscale)

    Time frame: Baseline data were collected prior to the intervention and post-intervention data were collected 10 weeks later.

    The Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS) is a measure of mindfulness to assess present-moment awareness and acceptance. The questionnaire comprises 20 questions rated on a five-point Likert scale with higher scores indicative of greater mindfulness. It comprises two subscales - Awareness and Acceptance. The range of scores on the Awareness subscale is 10 to 50 and the range on the Acceptance subscale is 10 to 50 with higher scores indicative a greater awareness and acceptance respectively.

  4. Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (Acceptance Subscale)

    Time frame: Baseline data were collected prior to the intervention and post-intervention data were collected 10 weeks later.

    The Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS) is a measure of mindfulness to assess present-moment awareness and acceptance. The questionnaire comprises 20 questions rated on a five-point Likert scale with higher scores indicative of greater mindfulness. It comprises two subscales - Awareness and Acceptance. The range of scores on the Awareness subscale is 10 to 50 and the range on the Acceptance subscale is 10 to 50 with higher scores indicative a greater awareness and acceptance respectively.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Lakehead University

Other

Collaborators

  • Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation

Registry information

Official study title

A Multi-site, Randomized, Controlled Trial of a Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy Intervention for Treating Depression in a Traumatic Brain Injury Population.

Important dates

Study start
2009
Primary completion
2012
Study completion
2012
First posted
Sep 3, 2008
Registry last updated
Mar 28, 2014

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.