The effect of an integrated application-supported mindfulness-based cognitive therapy programme on depression among adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury: A randomized controlled trial.

Objectives

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an integrated, application-supported mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) programme in reducing depressive symptoms among adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).

Methods

An open-label, two-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted in two public secondary schools in Thailand. The schools were randomly allocated to the intervention or usual-care control condition, with eligible participants pair-matched by sex and baseline depressive symptom severity (n = 48 persons/group). The blended school-based and application-supported MBCT programme was evaluated at baseline, 2 weeks post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up using repeated-measures ANOVA.

Results

There was a significant time × group interaction, F (1.73, 162.17) = 62.59, p < .001, ηp2 = .40, indicating differential changes in depressive symptoms between groups. Significant main effects of time, F (1.73, 162.17) = 203.59, p < .001, ηp2 = .68 and group, F (1, 94) = 15.74, p < .001, ηp2 = .14, were also observed, with lower depressive symptom scores overall in the intervention group.

Conclusions

The integrated application-supported MBCT programme effectively reduced depressive symptoms among adolescents with NSSI. NSSI was used to define the target population and was not a treatment outcome; therefore, effects on NSSI cannot be interpreted.