Digital CBT for Insomnia and Depression

Official title

Optimizing Digital Behavioral Treatment for Co-occurring Insomnia and Depression

Overview

This study has two primary objectives, each of which addresses critical clinical and research gaps for individuals who have co-occurring insomnia and depression. The first objective is to address whether sequential treatment of insomnia and depression is superior to a single treatment for either depression or for insomnia, and if so, which treatment sequence is optimal. The second objective is to determine if there are heterogeneity of treatment effects; that is, variation in which interventions are best for which individuals, and if so, to develop and individualized intervention rule to better match individuals with the treatment that is most likely to lead to the best outcomes. A large randomized trial will be conducted to meet these objectives.

Detailed description

Although efficacious behavioral treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and for depression (CBT-D) exist for insomnia and depression disorders, their impact on co-occurring symptoms can be modest and residual symptoms often remain. In addition, scalable versions of these interventions (like computer accessible or phone app versions) are needed for U.S. military Veterans who lack access to first-line interventions because of rural or other resource-limited environments. Finally, little is known about heterogeneity of treatment effects; that is, variation in which interventions are best for which individuals. This comparative effectiveness trial is designed to develop an an individualized intervention rule to match the right digital intervention to the right person with co-occurring insomnia and depression.

The study will use digital versions of CBT-I and CBT-D found to be efficacious for their intended target. A total of 1,160 participants who are Veterans with both insomnia and depression will be randomized with equal allocation to five study arms: two single interventions (CBT-I or CBT-D); two sequenced interventions (CBT-I+D or CBT-D+I); and a mood monitoring condition that will serve as the control group. Importantly, after approximately 400 participants have been randomized, we will end randomization to the mood monitoring condition and all subsequent participants (approximately 800) will then be randomized across the four remaining treatment conditions. Assessments occur at baseline, mid-treatment, post-treatment, at 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. The primary endpoint will be remission of both depression and insomnia at 3 months following the 12 week intervention period. All study activity will be conducted remotely including recruitment, treatment delivery and assessments, so that participants can be recruited nationwide.

The study will estimate average treatment effects on insomnia and depression remission at 3-months post-treatment (primary outcome) and 6-month maintenance of remission as well as treatment response. Significantly higher remission and response rates for sequenced rather than single interventions and lowest for the mood monitoring control condition are expected. Because variation in which interventions are best for which individuals are expected, study investigators will develop and evaluate an individualized intervention rule to determine an optimal approach for each participant in promoting 3-month remission of both disorders. A cutting-edge ensemble machine learning method will be used to do this.

Interventions

• Behavioral Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia consists of the standard features of this well-established insomnia treatment that will be delivered in this study via a mobile optimized web app. Participants also have access to an intervention coach/guide as needed.
• Behavioral Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression
  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression consists of the standard features of this well-established depression treatment that will be delivered in this study via a mobile optimized web app. Participants also have access to an intervention coach/guide as needed.
• Behavioral Mood Monitoring
  The mood monitoring intervention is based on mood tracking principles in broader mood management interventions, but without any psychoeducational content or cognitive-behavioral exercises. Instead, participants will get access to a mobile optimized web app that allows users to enter their mood, tag related events, and view trends over time to raise awareness of how activities influence certain mood states.

Primary outcome measures

• Dual Remission of Depression and Insomnia [Time frame: 3 Months post-treatment]

Secondary outcome measures (2)

• Depression Response [Time frame: 3 Months post treatment]
• Insomnia Response [Time frame: 3 Months post treatment]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• English-speaking
• U.S. Military Veterans
• endorse depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-depression score > 10)
• endorse insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index score > 10).

Exclusion Criteria are limited in accordance with real world effectiveness trials, but will include:

• pregnancy
• history of bipolar disorder
• history of psychosis
• current use of anti-psychotic medications or mood stabilizers (e.g., lithium)
• current suicidal ideation with active intent

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Treatment

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• University of Rochester Sleep Research Laboratory — Rochester

Publications

• Pigeon WR, Bishop TM, Bossarte RM, Schueller SM, Kessler RC. A two-phase, prescriptive comparative effectiveness study to optimize the treatment of co-occurring insomnia and depression with digital interventions. Contemp Clin Trials. 2023 Sep;132:107306. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2023.107306. Epub 2023 Jul 28. PMID 37516163

Identifiers

NCT: NCT05456607 · STUDY00007379

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗