Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial

This article describes a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a supervised online delivery of self-help plus (SH+), during the second wave of COVID-19 contagions in Northern Italy. The SH+ is a psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization to increase...

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Autores principales:	Marianna Riello, Marianna Purgato, Chiara Bove, Federico Tedeschi, David MacTaggart, Corrado Barbui, Elena Rusconi
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	The Royal Society 2021
Materias:	self-help plus anxiety PTSD randomized controlled trial nursing homes care homes Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7140105932364efeac9c120cc4632859
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7140105932364efeac9c120cc46328592021-11-24T15:17:11ZEffectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial10.1098/rsos.2102192054-5703https://doaj.org/article/7140105932364efeac9c120cc46328592021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210219https://doaj.org/toc/2054-5703This article describes a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a supervised online delivery of self-help plus (SH+), during the second wave of COVID-19 contagions in Northern Italy. The SH+ is a psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization to increase a person's ability to deal with stress. In this trial, it was tested primarily as a tool to reduce anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology in workers of residential nursing and care homes. In order to partial out non-specific effects of the intervention, the SH+ was compared to an equally supervised and structured alternative activity. Secondarily, in view of future emergencies, the potential of SH+ as a tool to reduce perceived stress, increase subjective well-being and foster individual resilience was explored. At post-intervention, the preregistered analysis revealed no difference in self-reported anxiety and/or post-traumatic symptomatology between the group receiving the SH+ and the group engaged in an alternative activity. Some specific and positive effects of the SH+ intervention were only found on self-reported intervention effectiveness and engagement in exploratory analyses. These findings raise the question whether the previously documented effectiveness of the SH+ on self-reported symptomatology and on the prevention of psychiatric conditions could be attributed mostly to non-specific rather than specific factors connected with participant enrolment in a psychological intervention. Indeed, the effects of the SH+ had been previously compared only to the effects of not being engaged in any alternative activity (often described in the literature as ‘treatment as usual’—or ‘enhanced treatment as usual’, when some relevant information is given to the control group as a one-off). Given the negative findings of this study, before the SH+ is implemented in clinical practice, further studies should be conducted to examine its short- and long-term beneficial effects, by means of randomized studies that employ alternative but similarly structured interventions as control conditions, aiming to minimize the confounding effect of non-specific factors.Marianna RielloMarianna PurgatoChiara BoveFederico TedeschiDavid MacTaggartCorrado BarbuiElena RusconiThe Royal Societyarticleself-help plusanxietyPTSDrandomized controlled trialnursing homescare homesScienceQENRoyal Society Open Science, Vol 8, Iss 11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	self-help plus anxiety PTSD randomized controlled trial nursing homes care homes Science Q
spellingShingle	self-help plus anxiety PTSD randomized controlled trial nursing homes care homes Science Q Marianna Riello Marianna Purgato Chiara Bove Federico Tedeschi David MacTaggart Corrado Barbui Elena Rusconi Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
description	This article describes a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a supervised online delivery of self-help plus (SH+), during the second wave of COVID-19 contagions in Northern Italy. The SH+ is a psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization to increase a person's ability to deal with stress. In this trial, it was tested primarily as a tool to reduce anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology in workers of residential nursing and care homes. In order to partial out non-specific effects of the intervention, the SH+ was compared to an equally supervised and structured alternative activity. Secondarily, in view of future emergencies, the potential of SH+ as a tool to reduce perceived stress, increase subjective well-being and foster individual resilience was explored. At post-intervention, the preregistered analysis revealed no difference in self-reported anxiety and/or post-traumatic symptomatology between the group receiving the SH+ and the group engaged in an alternative activity. Some specific and positive effects of the SH+ intervention were only found on self-reported intervention effectiveness and engagement in exploratory analyses. These findings raise the question whether the previously documented effectiveness of the SH+ on self-reported symptomatology and on the prevention of psychiatric conditions could be attributed mostly to non-specific rather than specific factors connected with participant enrolment in a psychological intervention. Indeed, the effects of the SH+ had been previously compared only to the effects of not being engaged in any alternative activity (often described in the literature as ‘treatment as usual’—or ‘enhanced treatment as usual’, when some relevant information is given to the control group as a one-off). Given the negative findings of this study, before the SH+ is implemented in clinical practice, further studies should be conducted to examine its short- and long-term beneficial effects, by means of randomized studies that employ alternative but similarly structured interventions as control conditions, aiming to minimize the confounding effect of non-specific factors.
format	article
author	Marianna Riello Marianna Purgato Chiara Bove Federico Tedeschi David MacTaggart Corrado Barbui Elena Rusconi
author_facet	Marianna Riello Marianna Purgato Chiara Bove Federico Tedeschi David MacTaggart Corrado Barbui Elena Rusconi
author_sort	Marianna Riello
title	Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
title_short	Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
title_full	Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
title_fullStr	Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
title_full_unstemmed	Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
title_sort	effectiveness of self-help plus (sh+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the covid-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial
publisher	The Royal Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/7140105932364efeac9c120cc4632859
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Effectiveness of self-help plus (SH+) in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among care home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial

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