title: A Mood Management Intervention in an Internet Stop Smoking Randomized Controlled Trial Does Not Prevent Depression: A Cautionary Tale.
abstract: Smoking and depression are related, and mood management interventions included in smoking cessation interventions can increase smoking abstinence rates. Could a mood management intervention embedded in an Internet-based smoking cessation intervention prevent major depressive episodes? Spanish- and English-speaking smokers (N= 17,430) from 191 countries were randomized to one of four online self-help intervention conditions (two with mood management). We analyzed preventive effects among those participants without a major depressive episode at baseline. The mood management intervention did not reduce the incidence of major depressive episodes in the following 12 months. However, we found a mood management by depression risk interaction (OR= 1.77,p= .004), such that high-risk participants who received the mood management intervention had an increased occurrence of major depressive episodes (32.8% vs. 26.6%), but not low-risk participants (11.6% vs. 10.8%). Further research on whether mood management interventions may have deleterious effects on subsets of smokers appears warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco ; Department of Psychiatry, San Francisco General Hospital ; Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Schueller
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: Eliseo J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Pérez-Stable
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco ; Department of Psychiatry, San Francisco General Hospital ; Palo Alto University.
authors.forename: Ricardo F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Muñoz
keywords: Internet intervention; depression; prevention; prevention of depression; smoking cessation