Brief Telephone Psychological Intervention for Depressive Symptoms in Caregivers
Brief Telephone Psychological Intervention for Depressive Symptoms in Caregivers
Caring for dependent persons can give rise to depression in non-professional caregivers,
 placing a burden on health care services and threatening the quality of the care dispensed to
 the dependent. Unfortunately, the ability of these patients to attend therapy sessions is
 often limited precisely by their role as caregivers. Preventive measures that are accessible
 to caregivers are thus called for. The primary aim of this project is to evaluate the
 efficacy of telephonic administration of a brief indicated preventive psychological
 intervention for depression that in previous work proved effective when administered in
 person in group sessions. With a view to optimizing resource usage by maximizing
 interventional efficacy, the secondary aim is to determine the contribution to overall
 efficacy of that part of the intervention that consists in increasing pleasant activities. To
 these ends, some 180 informed, consenting caregivers satisfying appropriate criteria for
 inclusion in the study will be randomized to one of three interventions (≈ 60 participants
 per intervention): the full cognitive-behavioural programme; a program focused only on the
 component of pleasant activities; or a usual care condition. Both programmes will be
 administered in five 90 minute sessions by audio tele-conference. All sessions will be
 recorded for verification of adherence to the intervention protocols. Participants will be
 re-evaluated at the end of their intervention (when participant satisfaction with the
 cognitive-behavioural programmes will also be assessed) and also 1, 3, 6 and 12 months later;
 all evaluations will be performed by trained interviewers who will be blind to the aims of
 the study, the interventions employed, and the group to which any given participant belongs.
 Analyses of these evaluations will compare the short- and long-term efficacies of the three
 groups. Factors that mediate participant improvement or predict results will also be
 investigated, and the cost-effectiveness of the interventions will be estimated.The central
 hypothesis of the proposed study is that a multicomponent cognitive-behavioral telephone
 intervention and a protocol assessing participation in pleasant activities will both
 significantly reduce the incidence of depression and depressive symptoms compared to a
 control group with usual care immediately after treatment and at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month
 follow-up visits.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Serves as an informal caregiver for dependent family member

 -  Dependence is recognized by the Xunta de Galicia

 -  Commitment to participate in all assessments

 -  A CES-D score ≥16

 -  Not suffering from a depressive episode

 -  Provides informed consent

 -  Has a telephone

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Having received psychological or pharmacological treatment in the previous 2 months

 -  To present other conditions that may act as confounders (e.g., symptoms due to
 substance use)

 -  Presenting serious psychological or medical disorders that require immediate
 intervention (e.g., suicidal ideation) or prevent study implementation (e.g.,
 significant cognitive impairment, severe hearing impairment)

 -  The dependent has a serious or terminal prognosis for the next 14 months

 -  Planning a change of address or institutionalization of the family member