Yannick Vander Zwalmen, David Demeester, Kristof Hoorelbeke, Nick Verhaeghe, Chris Baeken, Ernst H W Koster
{"title":"The more, the merrier? Establishing a dose-response relationship for the effects of cognitive control training on depressive symptomatology.","authors":"Yannick Vander Zwalmen, David Demeester, Kristof Hoorelbeke, Nick Verhaeghe, Chris Baeken, Ernst H W Koster","doi":"10.1037/ccp0000945","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b><i>Objective:</i></b> Cognitive control impairments are frequently observed after remission from depression. There is evidence to show that cognitive control training (CCT) can reduce such impairments and related risk for recurrent episodes. However, it is currently unclear how many CCT sessions are required for short- and long-term effects. <b><i>Method:</i></b> This randomized controlled trial investigates the dose-response relationship of CCT in a sample of individuals with remitted depression (<i>n</i> = 216). Participants were randomly assigned to one of six arms, each receiving a different amount of training sessions (zero, one, five, 10, 15, or 20 sessions) over the course of 4 weeks, with each session lasting 15 min. Depressive symptoms and other cognitive and emotional transfer effects were examined shortly after training, as well as at 3- and 6-month follow-up. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We found task-specific, but no near cognitive transfer. Mixed-effects models showed that a minimum of 10 training sessions was required for a significant decrease in depressive symptoms shortly after training with medium effect sizes, but this was not maintained at 3- or 6-month follow-up. We observed reductions in perseverative thinking in all groups receiving 10 or more CCT sessions, which remained present until 6-month follow-up. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> A minimum of 10 CCT sessions is required for beneficial effects on depressive symptoms and perseverative thinking. Where perseverative thinking remained decreased long-term, this was not the case for depressive symptoms, indicating the need for continued training or the use of booster sessions to maintain training-related improvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":15447,"journal":{"name":"Journal of consulting and clinical psychology","volume":"93 3","pages":"161-175"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of consulting and clinical psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000945","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
The more, the merrier? Establishing a dose-response relationship for the effects of cognitive control training on depressive symptomatology.
Objective: Cognitive control impairments are frequently observed after remission from depression. There is evidence to show that cognitive control training (CCT) can reduce such impairments and related risk for recurrent episodes. However, it is currently unclear how many CCT sessions are required for short- and long-term effects. Method: This randomized controlled trial investigates the dose-response relationship of CCT in a sample of individuals with remitted depression (n = 216). Participants were randomly assigned to one of six arms, each receiving a different amount of training sessions (zero, one, five, 10, 15, or 20 sessions) over the course of 4 weeks, with each session lasting 15 min. Depressive symptoms and other cognitive and emotional transfer effects were examined shortly after training, as well as at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Results: We found task-specific, but no near cognitive transfer. Mixed-effects models showed that a minimum of 10 training sessions was required for a significant decrease in depressive symptoms shortly after training with medium effect sizes, but this was not maintained at 3- or 6-month follow-up. We observed reductions in perseverative thinking in all groups receiving 10 or more CCT sessions, which remained present until 6-month follow-up. Conclusions: A minimum of 10 CCT sessions is required for beneficial effects on depressive symptoms and perseverative thinking. Where perseverative thinking remained decreased long-term, this was not the case for depressive symptoms, indicating the need for continued training or the use of booster sessions to maintain training-related improvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology® (JCCP) publishes original contributions on the following topics: the development, validity, and use of techniques of diagnosis and treatment of disordered behaviorstudies of a variety of populations that have clinical interest, including but not limited to medical patients, ethnic minorities, persons with serious mental illness, and community samplesstudies that have a cross-cultural or demographic focus and are of interest for treating behavior disordersstudies of personality and of its assessment and development where these have a clear bearing on problems of clinical dysfunction and treatmentstudies of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation that have a clear bearing on diagnosis, assessment, and treatmentstudies of psychosocial aspects of health behaviors. Studies that focus on populations that fall anywhere within the lifespan are considered. JCCP welcomes submissions on treatment and prevention in all areas of clinical and clinical–health psychology and especially on topics that appeal to a broad clinical–scientist and practitioner audience. JCCP encourages the submission of theory–based interventions, studies that investigate mechanisms of change, and studies of the effectiveness of treatments in real-world settings. JCCP recommends that authors of clinical trials pre-register their studies with an appropriate clinical trial registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, ClinicalTrialsRegister.eu) though both registered and unregistered trials will continue to be considered at this time.