Immediate Effects of Mobile Phone App for Depressed Mood in Young Adults with Subthreshold Depression: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Preventive interventions for subthreshold depression (StD) are essential to reduce the incidence of major depressive disorder. Our smartphone application presenting positive word stimulation in video (ie, Subliminal Priming with Supraliminal Reward Stimulation, SPSRS) was suggested to improve depressive symptoms in people with StD, although it is unclear whether it can immediately improve depressed mood. This pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to investigate the preliminary efficacy of SPSRS application intervention on depressive mood in people with StD. Methods: Thirty-two participants with StD were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 16) or control group (n = 16). The experimental group received SPSRS application intervention (10-minute video with positive word stimulation) and the control group received YouTube application intervention (10-minute video without positive word stimulation). Both groups used identical iPhones managed by the research team. The primary outcome was the change from baseline in depression-dejection on the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition-Adult Short (POMS 2-A Short) after the intervention. Results: No participants dropped out of the study. The experimental group showed a small improvement in depression-dejection on the POMS 2-A Short score (adjusted Hedges's g = −0.32) compared to the control group. Post-hoc power analyses estimated a sample size of 56 per group (112 total) to evaluate depression-dejection on the POMS 2-A Short in a future full-scale RCT. Conclusion: SPSRS application intervention may be effective in immediately improving depressive mood in people with StD. A future full-scale RCT based on a formally calculated sample size should be conducted to replicate these findings.

Effects of a video-viewing intervention with positive word stimulation on the depressive symptoms of older patients with cardiac disease and subthreshold depression: a pilot randomized controlled trial protocol

“…This study used BDI-II to identify the presence of StD in older patients with cardiac disease and to measure changes in depressive symptoms during a 1-week intervention. This is because BDI-II, in addition to being widely used to identify StD, is also widely used to assess depressive symptoms in clinical populations, including patients with cardiac disease [ 65 , 70 , 86 – 89 ].…”

“…In addition, SPSRS is free of charge and uses the YouTube Application Programming Interface, which allows patients to select from a wide variety of videos of interest and work toward reducing depressive symptoms. Previous studies have suggested that the use of SPSRS among individuals with StD compared with no intervention not only improves their depressive symptoms [ 64 ], but may also improve depressed mood immediately after the 10-min intervention [ 65 ]. In addition to the existing studies showing the effectiveness of SPSRS interventions in reducing depressive symptoms in patients with StD, one of the major factors that renders SPSRS applicable to older patients with cardiac disease is that it allows them to work toward reducing depressive symptoms without moving from their bed.…”

Relationships of Short video use and insomnia symptoms among rural adults: A perspective on the mediating role of depression (Preprint)

“…Conversely, some studies have identified positive effects associated with short video usage. For example, a 10-minute short video featuring positive stimuli could potentially enhance health outcomes [26,41,42]. Additionally, smartphone-based medical monitoring has also been utilized for disease management [27].…”