Metacognitive Training in the Older Adults With Depressive Symptoms (MCT-Silver)

Metacognitive Training in the Older Adults With Depressive Symptoms

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in older adults and a major cause of years lived with disability. Depression does not always respond to antidepressants, and non-pharmacological interventions are recommended by international guidelines. The Metacognitive Training for Depression in Later Life (MCT-Silver) is a creative and innovative group intervention that aims to reduce depressive symptoms by challenging the cognitive and metacognitive beliefs characteristic of this disorder, that intends to enable participants to recognize and correct their automatic and dysfunctional thinking patterns and behavior. It was developed by the partner institution's team, and has already demonstrated positive results. This project aims to extend the research study to Portugal, through cultural adaptation, pilot study, and a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). To this end, we defined the following aims: To plan and conduct a pilot study to assess the efficacy of the MCT-Silver in the Portuguese population; To conduct a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Ability to give informed consent
• Age: 60 years or older
• Sufficient command of the Portuguese language
• Willingness to participate in the intervention for a period of 4 to 8 weeks (participants who do not participate in the intervention will also be included in the analysis)
• Adequate visual and hearing acuity for neuropsychological testing and participation in the group sessions
• Values above 10 on the Hamilton Depression Scale

Exclusion Criteria:

• Active psychotic symptoms (i.e., hallucinations, delusions, or manias)
• Acute suicidal ideation
• Cognitive impairment
• Dementia or other neurological disease