We are currently preparing this new clinical trial ...

Things You Do Model (Big 5) of Mental Health

Background

Our research has shown that regularly doing five types of actions can improve mental health. These actions involve:

Healthy Thinking
Meaningful Activities
Setting Goals
Good Routines
Socialising

We have tested this model with more than 20,000 Australians. The results show that regularly doing these activities is strongly linked to good mental health.

We refer to these things as both "The Things You Do" and "The Big 5" ...

We're now testing this model in a slightly different way. We're asking people to do the opposite ...

Our next project aims to answer two key questions:

Does restricting how often we do these activities trigger poorer mental health and emotional wellbeing?
Following a period of restriction, does increasing how often people do these activities subsequently trigger a recovery in mental health?

These questions may seem obvious, but they have never been tested. The results of this project could help:

Support people to better self-manage their mental health by demonstrating how our actions affect our mental health
Help health professionals, such as general practitioners, recommend effective actions that people can take before they are referred to a mental health professional or start taking medication.

Who is the study suitable for?

The study is suitable for:

Adults aged 18 and older.
Who are living in Australia
With good mental health (none to mild symptoms of depression or anxiety)

We have tested this model with more than 20,000 Australians. The results show that regularly doing these activities is strongly linked to good mental health.

We also cannot include people who are currently experiencing mental health difficulties, receiving psychological treatment, do not have access to the Internet, are unable to read or understand English, or who are not living in Australia.

What does the study involve?

The study involves two groups and participants are randomised to one of the groups:

The "Monitoring" Group: This group simply goes about their daily life and day-to-day activities without making any changes. They are asked to fill in some questionnaires every Monday for 9 weeks.
The "Changing" Group: This group will be asked to change and monitor their activity levels across 3 different phases. They will also be asked to complete some questionnaires every Monday for 9 weeks.

The three phases for the "Changing" Group are:

Phase 1 (monitoring Phase): This phase lasts for 2 weeks and you will be asked to go about your daily life without any changes.
Phase 2 (Restriction Phase): This phase lasts for 2 weeks and you will be asked to restrict how often you do the actions listed in a specific questionnaire .

Phase 3 (Recovery Phase): This phase lasts for 5 weeks and you will be asked to increase how often you do the actions listed in the questionnaire. You will also receive daily (Mon-Fri) text message reminders to do those things.

The total time of this study is 9 weeks.

What are the risks to participating in this study?

During Phase 2 (Restriction) people may experience a reduction in their mental health and an increase in symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, in Phase 3 (Recovery), we expect that people will experience an improvement in their mental health.

We will monitor everyone’s mental health according to the answers they give on the weekly questionnaires. This is why it is very important that everyone who participates completes the questionnaires as early in the week as possible.

You are welcome to contact us at any time with questions or concerns, and we will contact people if we notice any problems with their mental health.

What is the current trial or study looking at?

This is the second time we have tried asking people to restrict how often they do helpful actions, and monitoring the relationship between their activities and their emotional wellbeing. In this next study, we will recruit a larger group of people and compare their patterns of activity and these relationships with a group who do not change their activity levels.

You can read more about the current study by reading the Participant Information and Consent Form Statement.

What have we found so far?

Overall we have found that regularly doing the Things You Do or Big 5 is associated with better mental health and lower levels of anxiety and depression symptoms. We have also found that during psychological treatment the Things You Do or Big 5 increase significantly over the first 8 weeks of treatment. We've also found that very simple interventions that prompt people to increase the Big 5 also significantly improve their mental health and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Some of the key papers we have published on this course are:

Titov N, Dear BF, Nielssen O, Barrett V, Kayrouz R, Staples LG. (2024). A pilot study examining whether restricting and resuming specific actions systematically changes symptoms of depression and anxiety. A series of N-of-1 trials. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 177, 104536.
Bisby MA, Barrett V, Staples LG, Nielssen O, Dear BF, Titov N. (2024). Things You Do: A randomized controlled trial of an unguided ultra-brief intervention to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 105, 102882.
Bisby MA, Dear BF, Karin E, Fogliati R, Dudeney J, Ryan K, Fararoui A, Nielssen O, Staples LG, Kayrouz R, Cross S, Titov N. (2023). An open trial of the Things You Do Questionnaire: Changes in daily actions during internet-delivered treatment for depressive and anxiety symptoms. Journal of Affective Disorders, 329, 483-492.

When is the next course being offered?

We are currently busy preparing for our next research study.

We are not sure when we will run our next study at the moment. However, you can register your interest below, and we will email you when it becomes available.