Instant Message-delivered Personalised Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Persons With Mild Cognitive Impairment
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Automated instant message-guided neuropsychiatric symptoms management.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Basic parameters: from 50 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Hong Kong
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Instant Message-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Persons Living With Mild Cognitive Impairment: a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial
Overview
This pilot study aims to develop an automated instant message-delivered intervention (i.e., EMI) for people with mild cognitive impairment, and to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention.
Detailed description
1. Message contents: The message content library will consist of two parts: 1. brief mild cognitive impairment messages (optional), and 2. acceptance and commitment therapy messages (mandatory). 2. Message delivery
* Regular messages: The messages in the two parts will be sent regularly to each participant. As personalisation is a core process subject to behavioural changes, the content, frequency, and timing of the messages will be determined based on participants' preferences. To save labour and increase efficiency, we will develop a message 'scheduler' program. We will pre-set the message scheduler, which will then automatically send out content to participants according to their preferences. The development of the program is highly useful particularly in cases which participants prefer to receive messages during non-office hours. * Therapist-led real-time support messages (chat-type): Chat-based support will be given to the participants as an extension of the regular messages. However, the participants will be informed beforehand that the RA will only play a supportive role and will not provide formal care. The number of the chat messages will not be limited, but the real-time support messages will only be provided during working hours (i.e., 9am-6pm) on weekdays to limit the RA's workload.
Control Group:
The control group will receive instant messages about mental health management from HKSAR Government website (https://www.shallwetalk.hk/en/mental-well-being/mental-well-being-is-related-to-you/), which is open to the public.
Interventions
- Behavioral Automated instant message-guided neuropsychiatric symptoms management
Participants in intervention group will receive the EMI for 8 weeks. Based on the steps of mobile message development recommended by Abroms, et al., we will develop a message content library and protocol for EMI delivery.
Primary outcome measures
- MBI-C scores [Time frame: 8 weeks]
Secondary outcome measures (4)
- Depressive symptoms (PHQ-9) [Time frame: 8 weeks]
- Anxiety symptoms (GAD-7) [Time frame: 8 weeks]
- Cognitive functions (HK-MoCA) [Time frame: 8 weeks]
- Acceptance of negative emotions and valued-based actions (AAQ-II) [Time frame: 8 weeks]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 50 years; HK-MoCA score range from 18 to 25; MBI-C ≥7; Able to read and communicate in Chinese (Cantonese or Putonghua); Able to use the text or voice messaging function on a smartphone.
Exclusion criteria
- Diagnosis of dementia; Diagnosis of psychiatric disease; Currently participating in any type of psychological or behavioural intervention for NPSs
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
- Double blind
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
Study locations
Hong Kong · 1 center
- The University of Hong Kong — Hong Kong
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07332624 · iact2025