A Novel Intervention Targeting Insomnia To Prevent Major Depressive Disorder In The Community
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,258,316.00
Summary
In this project we want to see if we can prevent depression by improving insomnia. We will invite people with elevated depression symptoms to undertake a novel self help program to reduce insomnia, and then see if their risk for developing clinical depression is reduced 9 and 18 months later. As far as we know, this approach has not previously been tried. The merit of the project is that we have tangible symptoms (sleep problems) with which to engage individuals in a prevention strategy.
Enhanced Treatment For Social Phobia Through The Incorporation Of Attentional Re-training.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$465,162.00
Summary
Social phobia is a serious difficulty that can cause tremendous interference in an individual's life. Social phobia can interfere with an individual's social and romantic life, work and study aspirations, and even increase medical and other psychological problems. Psychological programs to help individuals manage their anxiety have been developed and shown to lead to relatively strong positive outcomes. Recent theoretical understanding has suggested that one maintaining factor in social phobia m ....Social phobia is a serious difficulty that can cause tremendous interference in an individual's life. Social phobia can interfere with an individual's social and romantic life, work and study aspirations, and even increase medical and other psychological problems. Psychological programs to help individuals manage their anxiety have been developed and shown to lead to relatively strong positive outcomes. Recent theoretical understanding has suggested that one maintaining factor in social phobia may be these people's tendency to focus onto negative information. In some exciting developments, several researchers have shown that simply training people with social phobia to focus their attention away from negative information, with no other treatment components, can produce a marked change in their fears. Therefore it makes sense that incorporating these methods into current standard treatment packages, may increase their effectiveness. The current study aims to compare the current best practice treatment package for social phobia with a combination of this package plus the recent attention re-training methods. It is expected that incorporating attention re-training into standard treatment with significantly improve its effects.Read moreRead less
Self-help For Depressive Symptoms: Finding Messages Suitable For Population-wide Promotion
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$161,807.00
Summary
Members of the community often use self-help methods to reduce symptoms of depression. In some cases, these may be effective, but in others they may do more harm than good (e.g. self-medication with nicotine or alcohol). The project aims to find out which self-help methods are most likely to be helpful and are easy for the community to use. These methods can then be promoted in educational campaigns to improve how people cope with symptoms of depression. If people can take action to reduce milde ....Members of the community often use self-help methods to reduce symptoms of depression. In some cases, these may be effective, but in others they may do more harm than good (e.g. self-medication with nicotine or alcohol). The project aims to find out which self-help methods are most likely to be helpful and are easy for the community to use. These methods can then be promoted in educational campaigns to improve how people cope with symptoms of depression. If people can take action to reduce milder levels of depression, this may prevent them from progressing to develop a clinical disorder that needs professional treatment.Read moreRead less
Prevention Of Depression Using E Health Technologies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,750,000.00
Summary
The number of people experiencing depression in Australia could be reduced radically if we do two things: Provide prevention programs to young people AND reduce the stigma people feel if they seek help. This research aims to develop effective, personalised school prevention programs, and deliver them to every school student in Australia. It also aims to determine how we can lower stigma across Australia by using social media.
Finding My Way: A Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluating An Internet Self-help Program For Cancer-related Distress
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$392,608.00
Summary
The internet is increasingly utilised by people affected by cancer to obtain information and support. However, to date no randomised controlled study has evaluated the effectiveness of a structured online self-help therapeutic program. Therefore, the present study aims to examine how helpful 'iCanCope' is, an interactive online 6-week self-help coping program, compared to online information only, in improving distress, coping and quality of life after cancer diagnosis.
Self-help And Guided Self-help For Bulimia Nervosa In Primary Care: A Randomised Control Trial.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$206,113.00
Summary
Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a major health problem in Australian women with an estimated prevalence of 1.5%. It is frequently invisible, however as women with BN are often self-blaming, ashamed and reluctant to seek specialist help. Therapist led cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for BN, while effective, is expensive and frequently difficult to access. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two accessible and promising treatments: CBT self-help alone and guided CBT self-help treatment ....Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a major health problem in Australian women with an estimated prevalence of 1.5%. It is frequently invisible, however as women with BN are often self-blaming, ashamed and reluctant to seek specialist help. Therapist led cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for BN, while effective, is expensive and frequently difficult to access. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two accessible and promising treatments: CBT self-help alone and guided CBT self-help treatment conducted in primary care in which the patient receives regular guidance from a general practitioner (GP). Women with BN from the community will be randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions: self-help alone, guided self-help or delayed treatment control and symptoms assessed before and after treatment. Patient characteristics associated with improvement will be examined. We anticipate patients in guided self-help will show greatest improvement, then those in the self-help alone treatment. This information will be extremely valuable in both Australia and internationally for a number of reasons. It is ethically inappropriate to recommend any treatment before it has been shown to be effective and a careful design such as the one proposed is the best way to determine treatment effectiveness. In addition, a treatment delivered in primary care is likely to be one of the most accessible within Australia?s health care system in which specialist services tend to be centralised. Further, it is essential to know which patients are likely to benefit from less resource intensive interventions. Finally, if GPs have at their disposal an effective, evidence based treatment for BN, they would be in an ideal position for secondary prevention. They are likely under these circumstances to be more alert to the symptoms of eating disorders and confident in their ability to manage them. If successful, this research will result in more widespread treatment of this disturbing disorder.Read moreRead less
Reducing Suicide Ideation: A Randomised Controlled Trial Of A Novel Web Intervention
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$451,163.00
Summary
Suicidal ideation is experienced by almost 400,000 Australian adults. Many of them are reluctant to seek help for various reasons, whilst early intervention is important. The internet provides an opportunity to engage with individuals at risk of suicide and to offer evidence based, 24/7 prevention programs. This project aims to implement and test a web-based self-help intervention designed to reduce suicidal ideation.
Suicide is the most common cause of death in Australians aged 15-44. This ‘Centre for Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention’ aims to bring together leading experts in Australia and New Zealand to undertake the research work needed to determine the best way to deliver interventions to those at risk, to develop better understanding of the complex pathways that lead to suicide, to encourage help seeking and to prioritise which programs and services should be financially supported by Government.