Guided self-help on the Internet for Turkish migrants with depression: the design of a randomized controlled trial

• Published in: Current controlled trials in cardiovascular medicine 2010-11, Vol.11 (1), p.101-101, Article 101
• Main Authors: Unlü, Burçin, Riper, Heleen, van Straten, Annemieke, Cuijpers, Pim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Brochures; Care and treatment; Clinical trials; Cultural Characteristics; Culture; Demographic aspects; Depression - ethnology; Depression - physiopathology; Depression - therapy; Depression, Mental; Electronic mail systems; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Immigrants; Information Seeking Behavior; Internet; Internet access; Intervention; Mental depression; Mental health; Minority & ethnic groups; Netherlands - epidemiology; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Problem solving; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychological aspects; Psychologists; Quality of life; Research Design; Self Care; Self help; Self-help techniques; Severity of Illness Index; Study Protocol; Suicidal behavior; Telemedicine; Time Factors; Transients and Migrants - psychology; Treatment Outcome; Turkey - ethnology
• ISSN: 1745-6215; 1745-6215
• DOI: 10.1186/1745-6215-11-101

The Turkish population living in The Netherlands has a high prevalence of psychological complaints and has a high threshold for seeking professional help for these problems. Seeking help through the Internet can overcome these barriers. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a guided self-help problem-solving intervention for depressed Turkish migrants that is culturally adapted and web-based. This study is a randomized controlled trial with two arms: an experimental condition group and a wait list control group. The experimental condition obtains direct access to the guided web-based self-help intervention, which is based on Problem Solving Treatment (PST) and takes 6 weeks to complete. Turkish adults with mild to moderate depressive symptoms will be recruited from the general population and the participants can choose between a Turkish and a Dutch version. The primary outcome measure is the reduction of depressive symptoms, the secondary outcome measures are somatic symptoms, anxiety, acculturation, quality of life and satisfaction. Participants are assessed at baseline, post-test (6 weeks), and 4 months after baseline. Analysis will be conducted on the intention-to-treat sample. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a guided problem-solving intervention for Turkish adults living in The Netherlands that is culturally adapted and web-based. Nederlands Trial Register: NTR2303.