title: Comparing Brief Internet-Based Compassionate Mind Training and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perinatal Women: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Depression that occurs during the perinatal period has substantial costs for both the mother and her baby. Since in-person care often falls short of meeting the global need of perinatal women, Internet interventions may function as an alternate to help women who currently lack adequate access to face-to-face psychological resources. However, at present there are insufficient empirically supported Internet-based resources for perinatal women.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to compare the relative efficacy of Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to a novel Internet-based compassionate mind training approach (CMT) across measures of affect, self-reassurance, self-criticizing, self-attacking, self-compassion, depression, and anxiety. While CBT has been tested and has some support as an Internet tool for perinatal women, this is the first trial to look at CMT for perinatal women over the Internet.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and professional networks. Following completion of demographic items, participants were randomly assigned to either the CBT or CMT condition. Each condition consisted of 45-minute interactive didactic and follow-up exercises to be completed over the course of two weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Post course data was gathered at two weeks. A 2x2 repeated measures analysis of variance will be conducted to analyze differences between conditions at post course.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The implications of the trial will be discussed as well as the strengths and limitations of MTurk as a tool for recruitment. We will also briefly introduce the future directions along this same line of research.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02469324; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02469324 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6fkSG3yuW).
authors.affiliation: Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States. akelman@paloaltou.edu.
authors.forename: Alex R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0780-7619
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kelman
authors.forename: Meagan L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2282-1497
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: Alinne Z
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9182-7043
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Barrera
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5701-2243
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cree
authors.forename: Yotam
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0723-2448
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Heineberg
authors.forename: Paul
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2717-7618
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gilbert
keywords: Amazon Mechanical Turk; Internet intervention; comparative trial; perinatal depression