Online Brief CBT Intervention for Women With PCOS

How 2 Deal With PCOS: a Randomized Online Intervention for Women With PCOS

Primary Objective:

-To study if an online individual brief CBT (group A) intervention is effective for psychological distress (anxiety and depression) compared to a CAU group in patients with PCOS at 3 and 6 months relative to baseline.

Secondary Objective(s):

1. To study if an online group based brief CBT (group B) is more effective for anxiety and depression compared to CAU in patients with PCOS at 3 and 6 months relative to baseline.
2. To determine if an online individual brief CBT (group A) is effective for improvements in QoL, coping strategies, body image and sleep quality compared to CAU in patients with PCOS at 3 and 6 months relative to baseline.
3. To determine if an group based brief CBT (group B) is more effective for improvements in QoL, coping strategies, body image and sleep quality compared to CAU in patients with PCOS at 3 and 6 months relative to baseline.
4. If A and B are effective compared to CAU, we will compare online individual brief CBT (group A) to online group based brief CBT (group B) for anxiety and depression, QoL, coping strategies, body image and sleep quality compared to in patients with PCOS at 3 and 6 months relative to baseline.

The online brief CBT intervention is designed to address three problems that have often been reported in women with PCOS. Therefore, the program contains three themes: Psychoeducation about PCOS; traditional CBT and problem-solving therapy.

Participants are randomized into one of three groups:

1. individual treatment (A)
2. group treatment (B)
3. care as usual (CAU)

Treatment A and B include 5 sessions divided over a period of 3 months:

Week 1: Session 1 +homework assignments Week 3: Session 2 +homework assignments Week 5: Session 3 +homework assignments Week 8: Session 4 +homework assignments Week 12: Session 5 +homework assignments

The CAU group receives standard treatment for depressive symptoms from their general practitioner (GP).

Inclusion Criteria:

• women with a confirmed diagnosis of PCOS based on the Rotterdam criteria
• body Mass Index (BMI) ≥18.5 kg/m2
• aged 18-55 years.
• mild depressive symptoms or anxiety scores based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and/or a negative body image based on the Body Cathexis Scale (BCS).

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnancy
• current treatment for clinical depression, anxiety disorders or eating disorders
• suicidality (indicated by a score >2 on the Beck Depression Inventory II suicide item)
• having an endocrine disease (diabetes mellitus, thyroid function disorders, Cushing's disease, adrenal tumors, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia)
• inability to speak, read or write Dutch.