- Title
- An online intervention for co-occurring depression and problematic alcohol use in young people: primary outcomes from a randomized controlled trial
- Creator
- Deady, Mark; Mills, Katherine L.; Teesson, Maree; Kay-Lambkin, Frances
- Relation
- NHMRC
- Relation
- Journal of Medical Internet Research Vol. 18, Issue 3
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5178
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Background: Depression and problematic alcohol use represent two of the major causes of disease burden in young adults. These conditions frequently co-occur and this is associated with increased harm and poorer outcomes than either disorder in isolation. Integrated treatments have been shown to be effective; however, there remains a significant gap between those in need of treatment and those receiving it. The increased availability of eHealth programs presents a unique opportunity to treat these conditions. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an automated Web-based self-help intervention (DEAL Project) in treating co-occurring depressive symptoms and problematic alcohol use in young people. Methods: Young people (aged 18 to 25 years) with moderate depression symptoms and drinking at hazardous levels (recruited largely via social media) were randomly allocated to the DEAL Project (n=60) or a Web-based attention-control condition (HealthWatch; n=44). The trial consisted of a 4-week intervention phase with follow-up assessment at posttreatment and at 3 and 6 months postbaseline. The primary outcomes were change in depression severity according to the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 as well as quantity and frequency of alcohol use (TOT-AL). Results: The DEAL Project was associated with statistically significant improvement in depression symptom severity (d=0.71) and reductions in alcohol use quantity (d=0.99) and frequency (d=0.76) in the short term compared to the control group. At 6-month follow-up, the improvements in the intervention group were maintained; however, the differences between the intervention and control groups were no longer statistically significant, such that between-group effects were in the small to moderate range at 6 months (depression symptoms: d=0.39; alcohol quantity: d=-0.09; alcohol frequency: d=0.24). Conclusions: Overall, the DEAL Project was associated with more rapid improvement in both depression symptoms and alcohol use outcomes in young people with these co-occurring conditions relative to an attention-control condition. However, long-term outcomes are less clear.
- Subject
- depression; alcohol use; alcohol abuse; problem drinking; young people at risk populations; internet; intervention online therapy; eHealth; comorbidity
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1323446
- Identifier
- uon:24812
- Identifier
- ISSN:1438-8871
- Rights
- © Mark Deady, Katherine L Mills, Maree Teesson, Frances Kay-Lambkin. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 23.03.2016. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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