Online Emotion Regulation Group Intervention

This study will assess the efficacy of an emotion regulation skills-training intervention (Online EmReg) provided online to individuals with TBI with emotion regulation difficulties. Specifically, this study seeks to accomplish three aims: 1) Evaluate the efficacy of the Online EmReg intervention immediately post-intervention and at a 12-week follow-up assessment; 2) Identify factors that optimize the effectiveness of the Online EmReg intervention; 3) Explore the impact of Online EmReg on positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and executive functioning. The study design is a randomized control trial with a waitlist control group whereby the participants in the control group undergo the training after a 12 week waiting period. 104 subjects with TBI and self-reported deficits in emotion regulation will be enrolled.

The intervention protocol calls for 24, 60-minute emotion regulation sessions twice a week for 12 weeks, delivered online via Zoom by post-doctoral level therapists with specialty training in rehabilitation neuropsychology. Study participation will last approximately 28 weeks for participants in the immediate intervention arm (4 weeks preparation, 12 weeks intervention, 12 weeks follow-up) and 40 weeks for participants in the waitlist arm (4 weeks preparation, 12 weeks waitlist, 12 weeks intervention, and 12 weeks follow-up). Core assessments will be conducted at each major time point: T1 (baseline), T2 (immediate intervention end/waitlist baseline), T3 (immediate intervention follow-up/end of waitlist intervention), and T4 (waitlist follow-up). A subset of the measures will be administered every 4 weeks between each major time point for the duration of the study.

Inclusion criteria

• medically documented mild to severe TBI
• at least 6 months post-injury
• deficits in emotional regulation (ER), operationalized as a score of 0.5 standard deviations above published means on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004)
• English speaking
• adequate communication skills, assessed by the University of California, San Diego Brief Assessment of Capacity to Consent (UBACC)
• access to and ability to use a device that supports GoToMeeting/Zoom, the videoconference software
• active email address
• access to the Internet with adequate broadband
• Lives in the following states for the duration of the 12-week intervention: New York, California, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Arizona, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, or Washington DC

Exclusion criteria

• current alcohol or substance abuse
• current psychotic disorder, mood disorder with psychotic features or current suicidality, assessed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview