BA Trial for Co-occurring Depression and Substance Use
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Integrating Behavioural Activation for Depression into Community Drugs and Alcohol Treatment: A Mixed-Methods Randomised Controlled Trial
IRAS ID
247888
Contact name
Jaime Delgadillo
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sheffield
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
A large proportion of people seeking treatment for drug and alcohol issues also have clinically significant depression symptoms. This combination of problems tends to have a negative impact on treatment and leads to poor health and disability, yet relatively few studies have focused on the development of interventions for treating this comorbidity. There is emerging evidence to suggest that Behavioural Activation (BA) may be a viable and cost-effective treatment for comorbid depression and substance use problems, however more research is needed in order to establish its effectiveness in routine practice. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the efficacy of a brief (6-session), manualised BA intervention among service users with depression who are accessing Community Drugs and Alcohol treatment. We are planning to recruit up to 128 service users who are actively using substances to be randomly assigned to either the 6-week BA intervention or Treatment as Usual in Community Drugs and Alcohol services. These participants will be recruited from either a Community Drugs and Alcohol service or a Community Mental Health service. Our research will assess whether the BA intervention is more effective than usual care in (1) reducing depression symptoms, (2) reducing substance use, and (3) improving treatment engagement (i.e. session attendance). We will also explore the factors that contribute to the efficacy of the intervention through conducting post-treatment interviews with service users, as well as exploring the adequacy of the BA treatment and training protocol by conducting focus groups with drugs and alcohol workers who deliver the BA intervention in this study. We expect that our results will establish the efficacy of integrating BA for depression into routine Community Drugs and Alcohol Treatment and highlight the factors that are associated with positive therapeutic outcomes (i.e. improvements in depression symptoms and substance use) in this context.
REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0222
Date of REC Opinion
17 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion