The feasibility of low-intensity psychological therapy for depression co-occurring with autism in adults: The Autism Depression Trial study - a pilot randomised controlled trial

Lay abstract Depression is a mental health condition. It is unknown if psychosocial treatments found to be effective for depression meet the needs of autistic people, who have social communication and neurocognitive difference. We developed a guided self-help treatment for depression adapted for autism. We investigated the feasibility of delivering this treatment using a randomised controlled trial. Guided self-help comprised materials for nine individual sessions, training and a manual for therapists to support people in their use of the materials. Seventy autistic adults with depression randomly allocated to guided self-help or treatment as usual completed measures of depression, anxiety and other relevant factors. They were asked to repeat the measures 10, 16 and 24 weeks later and were invited to take part in interviews about their experience. Most people allocated to guided self-help attended all of the treatment sessions and told us that they found it helpful. More of the people attending guided self-help stayed in the study and completed the follow-up measures compared to the treatment as usual group. Almost half the people in treatment as usual did not attend follow-up. It will be important to improve the rate of follow-up measurement in treatment as usual in any future study. The findings of this feasibility study state that it is feasible to develop and deliver a guided self-help treatment that is acceptable to autistic adults with depression. The findings recommend a larger trial to find out if guided self-help is effective in treating depression co-occurring with autism.