Effectiveness of an Ecological Momentary Emotion Regulation Intervention

Summary

This two-armed randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the effectiveness of an emotion regulation intervention in individuals with and without depressive disorders. The study encompasses participants diagnosed with mild to moderate major depression or persistent depressive disorder and healthy controls without a current depressive disorder. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group, receiving a valence-specific emotion regulation intervention in daily life, or a monitoring-only control group. The valence-specific intervention supports the implementation of different emotion regulation strategies based on whether a person is experiencing mainly positive or negative emotions. In contrast, participants in the control group will solely monitor their positive and negative emotions and the strategies used to regulate them. Outcome measures include emotion regulation ability, self-efficacy, and strategy use, depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect, and emotion beliefs (controllability, usefulness). A second aim of the study is to compare beliefs about positive emotions and strategies to regulate them between individuals with and without current depressive disorders. Furthermore, the investigators aim to examine why individuals might choose unfavorable emotion regulation strategies even when feeling good. Therefore, another research question is, how emotion beliefs might explain emotion regulation strategy choice.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

* Online consent for participation
* Adequate proficiency in the German language, encompassing both reading and comprehension skills
* Ownership of a smartphone, compatible with either Android or iOS operating systems, and access to the Internet

For individuals in the clinical group with current depressive disorders:

* Currently meeting the DSM-5 criteria for a mild or moderate major depressive episode, or persistent depressive disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

* Current severe substance use disorder
* Acute suicidality
* Current severe major depressive episode
* Lifetime bipolar disorder
* Lifetime psychotic disorders

For the control group, additional exclusion criteria include:

* Meeting the DSM-5 criteria for a major depressive episode within the last 12 months
* History of severe major depressive episodes
* Recurrent depressive disorder
* History of persistent depressive disorder
* Current treatment (psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy) for depressive symptoms

Conditions4

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