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CompletedNCT04631887Updated Feb 21, 2021

The Delivery of "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide"

An interventional study of Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide in Stress, Quality of Life and Depressive Symptoms, sponsored by Koç University. Completed at 1 site in Turkey. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-02-21.

Sponsored by Koç University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
126
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The feasibility study for the delivery of the "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide" will be carried out for Turkish and Syrian individuals with psychological stress. This feasibility study's sample will be adult Turkish and the Syrian refugees. The informed consent form and screening questionnaire of the feasibility study will be sent to the participants who have given this approval and 128 (64 Turkish and 64 Syrian) participants who meet the inclusion criteria will be included in the feasibility study. The psychological problems will be measured twice, before and after the intervention.

Read the detailed description

Studies about the impact of epidemics such as Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on the psychological health of individuals show that psychological problems have been observed in individuals who are affected by the epidemic. Today, studies on the effects of COVID-19 on psychological health are also available in the literature, and the results of these studies are in line with those of previous studies on epidemics.

The aim of this project is to deliver the "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide" that is developed by the World Health Organization within Self Help Plus (SH+) intervention to decrease their psychological problems for a feasibility study. The feasibility study for the delivery of the SH+ book will be carried out and the psychological problems of the participants will be measured twice, before and after the intervention to evaluate the results.

The most important contribution of the Project is conducting a feasibility study with the "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide" which will be adapted to the Turkish culture based on the determination of Turkey's current psychological status, provide a form of intervention to the Turkish psychological intervention literature and to improve the psychological status of the participants in this project.

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Conditions studied

  • Stress
  • Quality of Life
  • Depressive Symptoms

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03

In context

Depression

8,057 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,641 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 126 is above the median of 84 across 6,720 interventional studies indexed under Depression.

Browse Depression studies →

Lead sponsor

Koç University is the lead sponsor of 106 studies on the registry; 36 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Being 18 years or above
  • Being literate
  • Being a Turkish citizen or a Syrian refugee
  • Scoring 15 or above on Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Imminent suicidal risk
  • Being illiterate
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
126 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Intervention Arm: Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide

    The intervention arm will receive the assigned intervention for five weeks. They will receive the intervention materials and will be called by psychologists three times (at the beginning, middle and end) during the intervention.

    Behavioral: Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide

  • No intervention
    Control Arm: Wait List

    The control arm has no intervention. The participants in the control arm will receive the intervention after the post-assessments are completed.

Interventions

  • BehavioralDoing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide

    The "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide" is a booklet that is developed by World Health Organization. It is a stress management booklet formed to provide people skills for coping with stress and adversity. The booklet has accompanying audio exercises.

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) over time

    Patient Health Questionnaire-9 is a 9 item questionnaire that aims to measure the severity of depression symptoms. Each of the 9 items are scored as "0" (not at all) to "3" (nearly every day), providing a 0-27 severity score. Higher scores indicate decreased functional status and increased symptom-related difficulties.

    Time frame: Change from baseline (1 week before the intervention) to post assessment (6 weeks after the pre-assessment)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change of the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) over time

    General Anxiety Disorder-7 is a 7-item questionnaire that aims to measure anxiety symptoms. Each of the 7 items are scored as 0, 1, 2, and 3 to the response categories (0 = "not at all," to 3= "nearly every day"). The total score for the seven items ranges from 0 to 21. Higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety.

    Time frame: Change from baseline (1 week before the intervention) to post assessment (6 weeks after the pre-assessment)

  2. Change of the PTSD Checklist for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM 5) (PCL-5) over time

    The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 is a 20-item questionnaire that assesses the symptoms of PTSD. In this study, a single question from each criteria of PTSD will be used. Overall four questions from PCL-5 will be assessed. Each of the 4 items are scored as 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 (0 = "Not at all" to 4 = "Extremely"). The total score for the four items ranges from 0 to 16. Higher scores indicate higher levels of PTSD symptoms.

    Time frame: Change from baseline (1 week before the intervention) to post assessment 6 weeks after the pre-assessment)

  3. Change of the The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) over time

    The World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire assesses various domains of life which are physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment. In this study, a single question from the questionnaire will be used which will be about the general quality of life. The question is scored from 1 to 5 on a response scale (1 = "Not at all" to 5 = "Completely"). A higher score indicate higher quality of life.

    Time frame: Change from baseline (1 week before the intervention) to post assessment 6 weeks after the pre-assessment)

  4. Change of the The General Self-Efficacy Scale over time

    The General Self-Efficacy Scale is a 10-item questionnaire that assesses the general sense of perceived self-efficacy. Each of the 10 items are scored as 1, 2, 3 and 4 on a response scale (1 = "Not at all true" to 4 = "Exactly true"). The total score for the four items ranges from 10 to 40. Higher scores indicate higher perceived general self-efficacy, lower scores indicate lower perceived general self-efficacy.

    Time frame: Change from baseline (1 week before the intervention) to post assessment 6 weeks after the pre-assessment)

  5. Change of the The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-2) over time

    The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire is a 7-item questionnaire that assesses the psychological flexibility. Each of the 7 items are scored as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 on a response scale (1 = "Never true" to 7 = "Always true"). The total score for the four items ranges from 7 to 49. Higher total scores mean less flexibility, while lower total scores mean more flexibility.

    Time frame: Change from baseline (1 week before the intervention) to post assessment 6 weeks after the pre-assessment)

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Study locations

1 site
  • Koc University
    Istanbul, Turkey
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References and documents

Publications

  • Dong L, Bouey J. Public Mental Health Crisis during COVID-19 Pandemic, China. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Jul;26(7):1616-1618. doi: 10.3201/eid2607.200407. Epub 2020 Jun 21. PubMed 32202993 ↗
  • Epping-Jordan JE, Harris R, Brown FL, Carswell K, Foley C, Garcia-Moreno C, Kogan C, van Ommeren M. Self-Help Plus (SH+): a new WHO stress management package. World Psychiatry. 2016 Oct;15(3):295-296. doi: 10.1002/wps.20355. No abstract available. PubMed 27717271 ↗
  • Fledderus M, Bohlmeijer ET, Pieterse ME, Schreurs KM. Acceptance and commitment therapy as guided self-help for psychological distress and positive mental health: a randomized controlled trial. Psychol Med. 2012 Mar;42(3):485-95. doi: 10.1017/S0033291711001206. Epub 2011 Jul 11. PubMed 21740624 ↗

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Nov 12, 2020
  • Informed consent form · Nov 12, 2020

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 21, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04631887
Lead sponsor
Koç University
Responsible party
Ceren Acarturk (Associate Professor, Koç University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 17, 2020
Start date
Nov 9, 2020
Primary completion
Jan 29, 2021
Completion
Jan 29, 2021
Last update
Feb 21, 2021

Study contacts

Gülşah Kurt, PhD
study chair · Koç University
Zeynep Ilkkursun, MA
study chair · Koç University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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