Brief social contact videos to promote treatment seeking among young adults with depressive symptoms: Intention change, suicidal ideation, and treatment use in a randomized controlled trial.
Tomer Levy, Maya Kuperberg, Matan Avrahami et al.
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In 30 seconds
This randomized controlled trial tested whether brief social contact videos featuring personal recovery stories increased help-seeking and treatment use among 1,545 young adults aged 18–25 years with depressive symptoms. Participants were assigned to one of three videos or a written vignette with the same content. Video assignment was associated with greater change in help-seeking intentions and greater treatment use at 30-day follow-up; intention change partially accounted for the association between assignment and treatment use. The indirect association did not differ by suicidal ideation, although the link between intention change and treatment use was stronger among participants reporting suicidal ideation.
Key findings
- Video assignment produced greater change in help-seeking intentions than the written vignette.
- Treatment use at 30-day follow-up was greater among participants assigned to video than among those assigned to the vignette.
- Change in intentions partially accounted for the association between intervention assignment and treatment use.
- The intention-change–treatment-use association was stronger with suicidal ideation, but conditional indirect effects did not differ by ideation status.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that brief personal recovery stories may support movement from stated willingness to seek help toward treatment use in young adults with depressive symptoms. The stronger association between intention change and treatment use among participants with suicidal ideation highlights the relevance of examining this group, while the absence of a difference in conditional indirect effects cautions against assuming a distinct intervention pathway.
What to keep in mind
Participants were recruited online, and treatment use was assessed at 30-day follow-up; the abstract does not report longer-term outcomes.