Peer-reviewed article
Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chinese Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms (CADS-D): protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Lei T, Wang N, Wang R, He Y, Liu X et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a protocol for a randomized controlled trial testing a smartphone-based cognitive behavioral therapy program (MOCA) designed specifically for Chinese adolescents aged 12-18 with depressive symptoms. Two hundred participants will be randomly assigned to either receive the 6-week digital therapy program or continue with regular school mental health curriculum. The study will measure changes in depression severity, anxiety, resilience, and quality of life at baseline, 6 weeks, and 3-month follow-up.
Key points
- The intervention is a 6-week smartphone-based cognitive behavioral therapy program called MOCA, tailored for Chinese adolescents
- Study design is a single-center, two-arm randomized controlled trial with 200 adolescents aged 12-18
- Primary outcome is change in depressive symptom severity from baseline to week 6
- Secondary outcomes include feasibility, anxiety symptoms, psychological resilience, and quality of life
- The study began enrollment in May 2025 and is currently ongoing
Limitations
This is a protocol document describing a study that is still in progress, so no results or evidence of effectiveness are available yet. The document provides planned methods only and cannot tell us whether the intervention actually works or what outcomes were achieved.
Abstract
Background Previous studies have confirmed that digital cognitive behavioral therapy (dCBT) is an effective intervention for alleviating depressive symptoms. However, there are no specific dCBT programs available for Chinese adolescents. Therefore, we developed a smartphone-based cognitive behavioral therapy program. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of dCBT for Chinese adolescents with depressive symptoms. Methods The Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chinese Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms (CADS-D) study is a single-center, two-arm, open-label randomized controlled trial. A total of 200 adolescents aged 12-18 years with depressive symptoms will be recruited. Key exclusion criteria include severe depressive symptoms or suicide risk, comorbid psychiatric disorders other than depressive disorders, severe physical illness or disability preventing dCBT use, current or recent treatment for depression, and inability to complete follow-up. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group, receiving the 6-week dCBT program MOCA, or the control group, receiving the regular school mental health curriculum. Assessments will be conducted at baseline (T1), post-intervention at week 6 (T2), and at a 3-month follow-up at week 18 (T3). The primary outcome is the change in depressive symptom severity from T1 to T2. Secondary outcomes, assessed at both T2 and T3, include feasibility and changes from baseline in self-reported depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, psychological resilience, and quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction. The first participant was enrolled in May 2025, and the study is currently ongoing. Discussion Findings from the CADS-D trial will provide empirical evidence regarding the efficacy and feasibility of dCBT among Chinese adolescents. If dCBT proves effective in alleviating depressive symptoms in adolescents, it will enhance therapeutic access for a wider adolescent population in China. Trial registration The study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT07163013; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07163013 ) on 9 September 2025.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- 6-week smartphone-based cognitive behavioral therapy program (MOCA)
- Population
- Chinese adolescents aged 12-18 years with depressive symptoms (n=200 planned)
Key finding
Study protocol registered and enrollment began May 2025; currently ongoing with no results yet available