UL researchers partner on study revealing effectiveness of multimedia intervention in treating depression in older adults

An international study involving researchers at University of Limerick has shown that multimedia intervention delivered via WhatsApp can be effective for treating depression in older people.

The pioneering international research trial, the results of which have just been published in the Nature Medicine Journal, developed and trialled a low-cost mobile messaging psychosocial intervention in socioeconomically deprived areas of Brazil.

The PRODIGITAL-D controlled trial, a collaboration between researchers from UL’s Health Research Institute, King's College London, the University of São Paulo in Brazil and the University of Bristol, involved the use of multimedia messages delivered using WhatsApp, a widely used mobile messaging app, to improve depressive symptoms among older adults (60+ years) in Guarulhos, Brazil.

These multimedia messages were developed by mental health experts from the institutions as a type of psychosocial intervention, which is an intervention that does not use medication but instead uses techniques such as talking and explaining to help improve a person’s mood.

The randomised controlled trial involving 603 people with depression, assessed the effectiveness of mobile messaging psychosocial intervention. Out of this sample, 298 received the intervention with 48 messages over three months containing the intervention material and 305 were in the control group who only received one message.

Participants’ depressive symptoms were measured at the start and three months after the trial using the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The results showed that 42.4% of people who received the intervention had recovered from depression compared to 32.3% of those in the control group.

Professor Pepijn van de Ven from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, who led UL’s involvement in the study, said: “Therapists are expensive and are not readily available in Brazil, certainly not in the Favelas where we did this study.

“Because of this, the delivery method of the intervention, using a widely available messaging system is really important as it means that you can provide this intervention very quickly to a lot of people for very little money.

“While the results of this trial are promising, the intervention should not be viewed as a replacement for traditional therapies administered by health professionals but rather something that could be applied in a low-resource setting or in a setting where people are generally waiting long periods for treatment, as is also the case in Ireland.”

Scalable solutions to treat depression amongst older adults in low-resourced settings are urgently needed, according to the researchers.

Reducing the burden of depression in older adults is a global health priority, key to ensuring healthy ageing and promoting wellbeing, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where 69% of the world’s older population live.

Estimates from low-resource settings in Brazil have found that 30% of the older population had experienced depressive symptoms suggestive of clinical depression, and only one-third of them had received a previous diagnosis.

The project was funded by the state of São Paulo Research Foundation and the Joint Global Health Trials initiative, jointly funded by the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and Wellcome.