Background: Emotion regulation has been identified as an important transdiagnostic factor relevant to the treatment of mental health disorders. Many empirically validated psychotherapeutic treatments incorporate elements targeting emotion regulation. Most of these treatment approaches are conceptualized as standard face-to-face treatments not as blended treatments, which include an internet-based intervention.
Objective: The aim of this study is to examine, for the first time, a new internet-based intervention-REMOTION-that will be provided transdiagnostically, as an add-on to psychotherapy, to provide a blended treatment format.
Methods: A total of 70 participants will be assigned (1:1 allocation ratio) to either the intervention group (REMOTION + psychotherapy) or the treatment-as-usual group that receives psychotherapy alone. To maximize external validity, a typical outpatient treatment sample of patients diagnosed with a range of disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, and adjustment disorder will be recruited from a university outpatient clinic. Patients with bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, or acute suicidality will be excluded from the study. The feasibility and potential effectiveness of the intervention will be examined by assessing data at baseline, 6 weeks (post), and 12 weeks (follow-up). The primary outcome is general symptom severity, assessed with the Brief Symptom Inventory. Secondary outcomes are emotion regulation, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, health related quality of life, well-being, and a variety of feasibility parameters. Quantitative data will be analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis.
Results: Participant recruitment and data collection started in February 2020, and as of November 2020, are ongoing. Results for the study are expected in 2022.
Conclusions: This pilot randomized controlled trial will inform future studies using transdiagnostic blended treatment.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04262726; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04262726.
International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/20936.
Keywords: blended therapy; emotion regulation; internet-based intervention; online therapy; transdiagnostic.
©Laura Luisa Bielinski, Tobias Krieger, Franz Moggi, Leonie Trimpop, Ulrike Willutzki, Christoph Nissen, Thomas Berger. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 12.11.2020.