Evaluation of the Bounce Back Program

Summary

Lifetime prevalence rates of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in Canada are between 10-12% with approximately 1.5 million Canadians reporting depression in any given year. Alarmingly, the burden of ill health associated with MDD is projected to increase worldwide such that by the year 2020, depression will move from its current position of fourth to become the second greatest burden of ill health, closely following ischaemic heart disease (Murray \& Lopez, 1998). As depressed patients are often in frequent contact with their primary care physicians for other health problems, effective depression treatment and management currently relies heavily on the primary care sector. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an empirically supported psychotherapy that is recommended by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments Clinical Guidelines as a first-line treatment for depression. However, across Canada, CBT is not readily accessible by primary care physicians for their patients, particularly in rural areas.

To help address this nationwide need for CBT, British Columbia (BC) is the first and only province in Canada to develop and implement a high capacity mental health service, Bounce Back: Reclaim your Health (BB), for primary care patients with mild to moderate depression. In BB, the patients' use of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) self-help materials is supported via trained telephone coaches.

The primary objective of our proposed research is to provide direct evidence of the effectiveness of the BB program, and, in particular, the telephone coaching component. The investigators will test: (1) whether the BB program is more effective than general practitioner (GP) treatment-as-usual (TAU); and (2) whether BB's positive results can be attributed to the telephone coaching component, as this component is associated with the most significant costs of the program. A secondary objective is to assess the cost-effectiveness of such telephone support.

Conditions

• Depression

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Telephone-supported self-help and GP treatment as usual

Participants' use of the BB self-help materials will be supported by three to five telephone coaching sessions that occur approximately every 2-3 weeks. Total contact time will be approximately 2 hours (2 hour total contact time will be considered "brief" in our study). Participants will also continue to receive whatever current treatment their general practitioner is providing.

BEHAVIORAL

Unsupported self-help and GP treatment as usual

This treatment was chosen as a control for the telephone coaching component of the BB program. Participants will be sent a package containing the BB self-help materials and along with instructions on how to utilize these materials. Participants will use the materials on their own and at their own pace. Participants will also continue to receive whatever current treatment their general practitioner is providing.

OTHER

General practitioner treatment as usual

This group will receive treatment as usual - whereby the clinic staff will inform the participant's GP of their PHQ-9 score. They will also be informed that their GP will be contacted that they are taking part in the research and that their GP will continue to support them with their depression as usual.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Canadian Mental Health Association

  collaborator OTHER

• University of British Columbia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mark Lau, PhD · University of British Columbia

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

19 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-03-31

Primary Completion

2014-12-31

Completion

2014-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations