Long waiting times in mental health services are associated with heightened distress, impaired daily functioning, and poorer treatment outcomes for individuals seeking help. Self-guided digital mental health interventions offer accessible and cost effective alternatives to traditional therapy, though engagement and dropout remain significant challenges. Single-session interventions (SSIs) have emerged as a promising solution, demonstrating meaningful reductions in symptoms such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders. SSIs might be a promising scalable treatment addition to patients on waiting lists for psychological treatment, but few studies specifically explore this, and understanding of mechanisms driving treatment response is limited. Recent calls have also been made to better understand how psychological interventions (such as SSIs) can be enhanced and extended beyond therapy-sessions and into patients daily lives.
This study is a pilot feasibility trial in preparation for a main trial aiming to develop and evaluate a digital, transdiagnostic single-session intervention for patients on waiting lists for psychological treatment. The main trial will also examine whether the effect of the SSI can be prolonged and enhanced in a scalable way through the introduction of Ecological momentary interventions (EMI).
A comprehensive development, testing and piloting phase will be completed to prepare for the main trial. This phase includes two pilot feasibility trials (one at each site) and one qualitative study. This trial registration refers to the first pilot feasibility trial, which will be conducted with the mild-moderate sample and will focus on developing the SSI and evaluating the feasibility of the full trial procedures, without introducing EMI. Participants from this trial will be recruited for qualitative interviews to provide feedback on the SSI, study procedures and their experiences of being on a waitlist.
In alignment with recommendations for pilot studies, no hypothesis testing will be conducted. We expect the study design to be feasible and anticipate that participant feedback will help optimize both the intervention and the procedures for the full trial.
Findings from this pilot feasibility trial may lead to one of three decisions:
1. Continue with the study plan after minor changes to study procedures and the single-session intervention.
2. Continue with the study plan after major changes to the study procedures and the single session intervention.
3. Reevaluate the study plan and possibly stop further exploration.
In addition to being approved by The Norwegian Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, this study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data.
The project is funded by Foundation Dam through the The Norwegian Council of Mental Health.
