Trial Outcomes & Findings for A Trial of Online LGBTQ-affirmative Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Reduce Depression and Associated Health Risks Among Young Adults (NCT NCT04408469)

Recruitment started in May 2020 and ended in May 2021. Participants for this study were recruited from social media, mobile dating apps, LGBTQ community organizations, and via peer recruitment and referral.

A Trial of Online LGBTQ-affirmative Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Reduce Depression and Associated Health Risks Among Young Adults

Distress will be measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). The BSI is an 18 item measure that uses a 0-4 rating scale for each item. An overall score of 72 would be the highest possible score on the measure and would indicate an extreme level of overall distress.

Depression will be measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies -- Depression Scale (CESD). This 20-item measure uses a 0-3 rating (Rarely or none of the time - Most or all of the time) scale and sums across the items with items 3, 11, 14, and 16 reversed. for a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 60. Higher scores indicate greater severity of depression. In cases with internally missing data (items not answered), the sums are computed after imputation of the missing values: # items on scale / # actually answered, multiplied by the sum obtained from the answered items. A higher score indicates more depressive symptomatology during the past week.

Depression severity will be measured using the Overall Depression Severity \& Impairment Scale (ODSIS). This 5 item measure uses a 0-4 rating scale and sums across the items for a maximum score of 20. The higher the score, the greater the severity of depression.

Anxiety symptoms will be measured by the Overall Anxiety Severity \& Impairment Scale (OASIS). This 5 item measure uses a 0-4 rating scale and sums across the items for a maximum score of 20. The higher the score, the greater the presence of anxiety symptoms.

Alcohol use in participants will be assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification (AUDIT) instrument. Any alcohol use over the past 3 months will be measured through the first item of the instrument ("How often, during the last 3 months did you have a drink containing alcohol?") with the creation of a binary variable (1 = any alcohol use, 0 = no alcohol use).

Suicidal ideation will be measured using the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS). Any suicidal ideation was assessed through the first item of this scale ("In the past month, how often have you had thoughts about suicide?") with the creation of a binary variable (1 = any suicidal ideation, 0 = no suicidal ideation).

Sexual risk behavior is defined as: condomless anal or vaginal/frontal sex \[not counting the sole use of prosthetics\] in the absence of PrEP, with any HIV+ partner \[except primary HIV+ partners with a known undetectable viral load\] or status-unknown partner. A binary variable of any sexual risk behavior was constructed from reports of past-90 day sexual behavior (1 = any sexual risk behavior, 0 = no sexual risk behavior).