Lauren B. Fisher

Background: Smartphones could enhance access to effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Users may frequently and flexibly access bite-size CBT content on personal devices, review and practice skills, and thereby achieve better outcomes. Objective: We explored the distribution of actual interactions participants had with therapeutic content in a trial of smartphone CBT for depression and whether interactions were within assigned treatment modules or revisits to prior module content (ie, between-module interactions). Methods: We examined the association between the number of within- and between-module interactions and baseline and end-of-treatment symptom severity during an 8-week, single-arm open trial of a therapist-guided CBT for depression mobile health app. Results: Interactions were more frequent early in treatment and modestly declined in later stages. Within modules, most participants consistently made more interactions than required to progress to the next module and tended to return to all types of content rather than focus on 1 skill. By contrast, only 15 of 26 participants ever revisited prior module content (median number of revisits=1, mode=0, IQR 0-4). More revisits were associated with more severe end-of-treatment symptom severity after controlling for pretreatment symptom severity (P<.05). Conclusions: The results suggest that the frequency of use is an insufficient metric of engagement, lacking the nuance of what users are engaging with and when during treatment. This lens is essential for developing personalized recommendations and yielding better treatment outcomes. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05386329; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05386329?term=NCT05386329

BACKGROUND Smartphones could enhance access to effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Users may frequently and flexibly access bite-size CBT content on personal devices, review and practice skills, and thereby achieve better outcomes. OBJECTIVE We explored the distribution of actual interactions participants had with therapeutic content in a trial of smartphone CBT for depression and whether interactions were within assigned treatment modules or revisits to prior module content (ie, between-module interactions). METHODS We examined the association between the number of within- and between-module interactions and baseline and end-of-treatment symptom severity during an 8-week, single-arm open trial of a therapist-guided CBT for depression mobile health app. RESULTS Interactions were more frequent early in treatment and modestly declined in later stages. Within modules, most participants consistently made more interactions than required to progress to the next module and tended to return to all types of content rather than focus on 1 skill. By contrast, only 15 of 26 participants ever revisited prior module content (median number of revisits=1, mode=0, IQR 0-4). More revisits were associated with more severe end-of-treatment symptom severity after controlling for pretreatment symptom severity (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the frequency of use is an insufficient metric of engagement, lacking the nuance of what users are engaging with and when during treatment. This lens is essential for developing personalized recommendations and yielding better treatment outcomes. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05386329; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05386329?term=NCT05386329

Suicide in the military represents a significant and multifaceted problem, with complex and interdependent factors contributing to its occurrence. Disentangling

Family caregivers of dementia patients experience high levels of interpersonal stress that often results in elevated anxiety, and depression, and negative impacts on interpersonal relationships. Changes in behaviors and the structure of relationships with the care recipient (CR) and others in the social milieu challenge the caregivers' ability to mentalize, or understand the links between mental states and behaviors. This study investigates the experiences and perceived benefits of family dementia caregivers who underwent Mentalizing Imagery Therapy (MIT), a treatment aiming to improve balanced self-other mentalizing and reduce psychological symptoms. Purposeful sampling was used to select 11 family dementia caregivers who underwent a 4-week pilot trial of MIT. Semi-structured interviews were completed post-intervention to identify subjective benefits, putative psychological mediators and perceived active components. Caregivers reported improvements in well-being, mood, anxiety, and sleep, and a majority stated MIT helped with forming and maintaining healthier relationships. Some participants noted benefits extending to how they reacted to their social environment and perceived themselves more objectively from others' perspectives. Specific elements of MIT, including self-compassion, self-care, and the ability to reflect on emotionally arousing challenges, might have mediated these improvements. Family dementia caregivers perceived salutary benefits of MIT on multiple domains of well-being. The self reports suggest MIT holds promise for improving well-being, reducing non-mentalizing patterns of thought, and facilitating improvements in balanced mentalization within the caregivers' relationships.

Objective: The aim of the study was to predict suicidal ideation 1 yr after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. Design: This study used a cross-sectional design with data collected through the prospective, longitudinal Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems network at hospitalization and 1 yr after injury. Participants who completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 suicide item at year 1 follow-up (N = 4328) were included. Results: A gradient boosting machine algorithm demonstrated the best performance in predicting suicidal ideation 1 yr after traumatic brain injury. Predictors were Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items (except suicidality), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 items, and a measure of heavy drinking. Results of the 10-fold cross-validation gradient boosting machine analysis indicated excellent classification performance with an area under the curve of 0.882. Sensitivity was 0.85 and specificity was 0.77. Accuracy was 0.78 (95% confidence interval, 0.77–0.79). Feature importance analyses revealed that depressed mood and guilt were the most important predictors of suicidal ideation, followed by anhedonia, concentration difficulties, and psychomotor disturbance. Conclusions: Overall, depression symptoms were most predictive of suicidal ideation. Despite the limited clinical impact of the present findings, machine learning has potential to improve prediction of suicidal behavior, leveraging electronic health record data, to identify individuals at greatest risk, thereby facilitating intervention and optimization of long-term outcomes after traumatic brain injury.

Background: Telehealth has provided many researchers, especially those conducting psychosocial research, with the tools necessary to transition from in-person to remote clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. A growing body of research supports the effectiveness of telemental health for a variety of psychiatric conditions, but few studies have examined telemental health for individuals with comorbid medical diagnoses. Furthermore, little is known about the remote implementation of clinical trials examining telemental health interventions. Objective: This paper outlines the procedural modifications used to facilitate conversion of an in-person randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI; CBT-TBI) to a telemental health study administered remotely. Methods: Given the nature of remote implementation and specific challenges experienced by individuals with TBI, considerations related to treatment delivery, remote consent, data management, neuropsychological assessment, safety monitoring, and delivery of supportive material have been discussed. Feasibility, acceptability, and safety were evaluated by examining attendance and participant responses on self-report measures of treatment satisfaction and suicidal behavior. Results: High rates of treatment attendance, assessment completion, study retention, and satisfaction with the intervention and modality were reported by participants who completed at least one telemental health CBT-TBI session. Conclusions: Study modifications are necessary when conducting a study remotely, and special attention should be paid to comorbidities and population-specific challenges (eg, cognitive impairment). Preliminary data support the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of remotely conducting a randomized controlled trial of CBT-TBI. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03307070; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03307070