Yun-Ling Chen1, Ay-Woan Pan2, Ping-Chuan Hsiung3, Lyinn Chung4, Jin-Shei Lai5, Susan Shur-Fen Gau6, Tsyr-Jang Chen7. 1. School of Occupational Therapy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. 2. School of Occupational Therapy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan Uniersity Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: aywoan@ntu.edu.tw. 3. Department of Social Worker, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. 4. Department of Statistics, National Taipei University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. 5. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA. 6. Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan Uniersity Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. 7. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lung-Hwa University of Science and Technology, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan.
Abstract
BAKGROUND: To investigate the efficacy of the "Life Adaptation Skills Training (LAST)" program for persons with depression. METHODS: Sixty-eight subjects with depressive disorder were recruited from psychiatric outpatient clinics in Taipei city and were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (N=33), or a control group (N=35). The intervention group received 24-sessions of the LAST program, as well as phone contact mainly related to support for a total of 24 times. The control group only received phone contact 24 times. The primary outcome measure utilized was the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF-Taiwan version. Secondary outcome measures included the Occupational self-assessment, the Mastery scale, the Social support questionnaire, the Beck anxiety inventory, the Beck depression inventory-II, and the Beck scale for suicide ideation. The mixed-effects linear model was applied to analyze the incremental efficacy of the LAST program, and the partial eta squared (ηp(2)) was used to examine the within- and between- group effect size. RESULTS: The subjects who participated in the LAST program showed significant incremental improvements with moderate to large between-group effect sizes on their level of anxiety (-5.45±2.34, p<0.05; ηp(2)=0.083) and level of suicidal ideation (-3.09±1.11, p<0.01; ηp(2)=0.157) when compared to the control group. The reduction of suicidal ideations had a maintenance effect for three months after the end of intervention (-3.44±1.09, p<0.01), with moderate between-group effect sizes (ηp(2)=0.101). Both groups showed significant improvement on overall QOL, overall health, physical QOL, psychological QOL, level of anxiety, and level of depression. The within-group effect sizes achieved large effects in the intervention group (ηp(2)=0.328-0.544), and were larger than that of the control group. LIMITATIONS: A small sample size in the study, a high dropout rate, lower compliance rates for the intervention group, and lacking of true control group. CONCLUSIONS: The occupation-based LAST program, which focuses on lifestyle rearrangement and coping skills enhancement, could significantly improve the level of anxiety and suicidal ideations for persons with depression.
BAKGROUND: To investigate the efficacy of the "Life Adaptation Skills Training (LAST)" program for persons with depression. METHODS: Sixty-eight subjects with depressive disorder were recruited from psychiatric outpatient clinics in Taipei city and were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (N=33), or a control group (N=35). The intervention group received 24-sessions of the LAST program, as well as phone contact mainly related to support for a total of 24 times. The control group only received phone contact 24 times. The primary outcome measure utilized was the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF-Taiwan version. Secondary outcome measures included the Occupational self-assessment, the Mastery scale, the Social support questionnaire, the Beck anxiety inventory, the Beck depression inventory-II, and the Beck scale for suicide ideation. The mixed-effects linear model was applied to analyze the incremental efficacy of the LAST program, and the partial eta squared (ηp(2)) was used to examine the within- and between- group effect size. RESULTS: The subjects who participated in the LAST program showed significant incremental improvements with moderate to large between-group effect sizes on their level of anxiety (-5.45±2.34, p<0.05; ηp(2)=0.083) and level of suicidal ideation (-3.09±1.11, p<0.01; ηp(2)=0.157) when compared to the control group. The reduction of suicidal ideations had a maintenance effect for three months after the end of intervention (-3.44±1.09, p<0.01), with moderate between-group effect sizes (ηp(2)=0.101). Both groups showed significant improvement on overall QOL, overall health, physical QOL, psychological QOL, level of anxiety, and level of depression. The within-group effect sizes achieved large effects in the intervention group (ηp(2)=0.328-0.544), and were larger than that of the control group. LIMITATIONS: A small sample size in the study, a high dropout rate, lower compliance rates for the intervention group, and lacking of true control group. CONCLUSIONS: The occupation-based LAST program, which focuses on lifestyle rearrangement and coping skills enhancement, could significantly improve the level of anxiety and suicidal ideations for persons with depression.